Chapter 2
Born That Way
“Dumbass.” Jake stamped on the shadowbeast’s skull again, was rewarded with a splattering crunch.
His blond hair glowed in a random reflection of streetlight; the rest of the alley was beginning to fill up with reflected lumens now that the beast wasn’t exhaling foulness, masking as it hunted. “Erik? How we doing?”
How do you think? It was useless to reply with sarcasm; such things bounced right off his Younger.
Erik hissed an exhale, probing his shredded shoulder with careful fingertips.
The thing had attempted to shake him like a ragdoll, not caring that a Son’s blood would be poisonous to it.
They usually weren’t so willing to stay and fight.
It must have been extraordinarily hungry, or found high-value prey.
Erik had expected the prey to be something else from the underside, but it wasn’t. Instead, a fucking civilian had waltzed right across the thing’s path. Which was odd.
Or at least, that’s all he thought before the entire world changed between one breath and the next.
He sank into a crouch, clutching his shoulder, driving his fingers in deeper to test the pain.
Yeah, it hurt, and he was in for more if the thing was venomous.
His veins would burn for the next six hours while he metabolized.
He was ready to wipe the civilian’s memory and make sure it got home safe before his eyes adapted again and his shoulder gave another flare.
Ow. Son of a… wait. Wait just a goddamn minute.
The pain receded and a strange tingling warmth took its place, working in through the wound. Erik’s mouth fell open, and he stared for a few moments before bringing his jaw back up with a snap. “Uh, Jake?”
His Younger brother was busy stamping on the thing’s malformed head again, muttering obscenities. Jake’s blood was up, and that was a bad sign.
He was getting touchier and touchier out on patrol these days. They both were, and Erik thought it likely the voices in Jake’s head were intensifying.
Just like the persistent soft whisper inside his own skull.
Erik clamped his fingers on his shoulder again, hoping for a burst of steadying agony.
It hurt, yeah, but the pain was rapidly fading.
He blinked, and his heart—if a Son of Ymre could be said to have anything other than a metronome cardiac muscle ticking off the slow slide into insanity—did something like a triple backflip before settling into its usual postcombat thunkadunk.
“What the shit?” he muttered.
A woman. Nice grey wool dress, knee-length, long-sleeved, a ballerina neckline.
A pretty grey cashmere pashmina, well-loved and dry-cleaned, knocked almost clean off her.
One of her feet was bare—or at least, covered only by those striped tights, a strange choice but the verticals made her legs look like they went on forever.
She had a mop of wavy darkish hair, strands moving under a cold breeze from the alley mouth.
Where the hell had she come from? They’d driven the shadowbeast in here because it was off the main drag and nicely deserted.
“What the fuck?” Jake had stopped stamping, and drifted up on his brother’s nine o’clock. He peered over Erik’s shoulder. “Is it dead?”
You’d better hope not. “Uh, nope. Still breathing.” Erik sighed. “How you feeling?” It had been a busy night so far, all sorts of underside bastards coming out to play in the rain and the long winter dark.
And this explained why.
“What? Like I just got the shit kicked out of me all the way from here to…” Jake trailed off. “Huh.”
“Yeah.” Erik exhaled softly as his shoulder finished healing.
The flesh twitched, closing itself and expelling toxins as a thin dribble soaking into layers of cloth—thermal shirt, body armor, hoodie, leather jacket for even more bulk and a first wall of protection.
The venom would eat through everything but the leather and Kevlar.
Thin threads of acrid steam rose as it kept consuming, but it was a lot less virulent now.
Another soft burst of warmth was teasing it away, drawing the steam out to vanish harmlessly into the night. “It’s her.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” Jake pushed against his shoulder, peering at the crumpled form. “Seriously?”
“I am seriously not shitting you.” Erik’s pulse was down out of the redline, but he still felt a little woozy.
It had to be shock added to the poison—sure, shock, and not at all the idea that one of them—or the shadowbeast—could have easily battered this small, fragile creature beyond repair.
Which would have been extremely bad luck.
More tingling warmth spread from his shoulder, creeping through his bloodstream. “You don’t feel that?”
“Oh, I feel it all right.” Jake sounded grim. He crouched too, a lazy, supple motion, and ran his hands through his hair. A slight crackle of sorcery cleaned muck and sweat away; his little brother liked to wash off between battles. “You go first then, I guess.”
“What?” Erik never bothered to clean up before getting home. Why rid himself of the filth when there was more waiting just around the corner? Getting scraped and dry at the end of the night was the one ritual he actually liked.
“I’ll keep watch.” Jake shifted a fraction, bumped his shoulder. It was a rough, welcome reminder of affection. “You go ahead, seal her up.”
Oh. Erik shook his head slightly. “I’m not going to.”
“What, you think I should, first?” Younger Brother’s laugh didn’t quite echo down the alley, but it was close. “Didn’t think you were the sharing type.”
No, you idiot. I’m not, but that’s not the point. “I’m not going to rape her, Jake.”
“It’s not rape.” He sounded baffled that Erik would even suggest such a thing; the permanent inoculation a lirai could provide against the god’s voice required only deep physical closeness and intent from one or both parties, not necessarily desire or even affection.
“It’s a lirai.” As if he had just verified for himself that the woman was, indeed, one of the Dreamers in living flesh.
No wonder the underside had been out to play.
Even as potentials untriggered by the Flame, lirai were good snacks for a wide variety of predators.
“She’s knocked out.” And that was Erik’s fault—he’d hit her hard enough to break delicate human bones.
“Besides, apparently anyone could come down here at any moment; it’s a regular old freeway. We’ll take her home.”
“Oh, you want to make points with Father?” Jake snorted. “That’ll be nice. I’m sure he’ll be touched.”
“No, goddammit.” Erik gave his Younger a long, considering sidelong glance. “I can’t believe you think I’d actually do that in an alley.”
“It’s not assault, goddammit.” Jake mimicked his tone, right down to the slight pause after god. “It’s a lirai, it’s insurance, and you’re closer to the edge than I am. That’s all I meant. Besides, sooner or later…”
Sooner or later she’d have to choose a seal, yeah. More than one if she was powerful enough, or if losing her protectors to the unclean bothered her. “Then she’ll decide, and she’ll be conscious for it.” Not to mention consenting.
“You’re gonna regret that.” Jake didn’t need to say more. What woman—let alone a lirai—would choose Erik, with his blond, easygoing little brother around? “I’m just sayin’.”
“Yeah, well.” Erik rocked a little, keeping his muscles nice and warm in case some-damn-thing else happened. “See if you can find her shoe, huh?”
“Oh, my lady’s shoe has gone missing?” Jake didn’t quite roll his eyes, but it was close. “The tragedy.”
“She’s got to vanish without a trace.” There were no cameras high on the brick walls, but he still checked.
The one over a restaurant’s back door, before the alley made a hard ninety-degree turn and went past a kitchen in the bottom of the skyscraper next door, was pointed down to catch whoever was exiting, that was all.
Maybe she was taking a shortcut? Or she’d gotten lost?
Yet another thing that didn’t matter. Outside the range of that electronic eye, the Sons and their new treasure were safe enough.
“You knocked her right out of her heels.” Jake found that funny. At least, he laughed, like a good Younger providing amusement and hijinks to help an Elder hold on. “Man, you are something else.”
“Born that way,” Erik muttered. He eased forward, taking in what he could of the woman.
That dark hair was in a real tangle. He wondered if she was pretty.
Not like it mattered much, once she’d been betrayed to the Flame she’d be well-nigh irresistible.
“Lucky lady, huh? Gonna wake up like Sleeping Beauty and get everything she ever wanted.”
Nothing was too good for a lirai. The fact that the vast mass of humanity was unconscious of the debt everything on this spinning rock owed to the Dreamers just meant those who did know had to pay double.
Or more.
“I’m sure she’s real grateful.” Jake obviously couldn’t help himself. He kept laughing, and fished a grey suede heel out of a pile of damp black plastic garbage bags on the other side of the alley. “God damn, man, right out of her shoes. It’s meant to be. A modern fairytale.”
“You’re an asshole,” Erik said, but not very loudly. He brushed aside some of her hair, wondering what she did for a living. Was she meeting someone? The silky strands clung to his fingers, and he was suddenly very aware that he was painted in underside sludge, blood, and various other things.
What the fuck was she doing in a rancid alley after dark?
Didn’t matter. The priority was getting her to the temple before she woke up. Once she was inside those walls and Father was alerted, matters would take their natural course.