Chapter Nineteen #2
Being so close to my birthday should probably make me a lot more concerned than I am about my impending death, but unbelievable things are happening at a fast pace right now. It’s totally possible that I will still be alive come November.
Exiting the room, I find Pierce looking over some papers at the breakfast bar of the small kitchen.
“Anything interesting? Is that like The Demon Times or something?”
He huffs a laugh but doesn’t raise his head. “Just some paperwork for a new clinic I’m buying in North Carolina.”
“What are you planning to do with it?” I’m curious about this friendly giant of a man—demon. He seems far too sweet to be what he is.
“The same thing as the rest of my clinics or hospitals. Make sure the anthros get the best care they can, with a private section for the kyn on Earth. They’re all like safe havens for any kyn, regardless of what they are.
” Finally, he looks up after signing the bottom of one of the pages.
“The bathroom is through the second door to the left and I’ve left a selection of clean clothes in there.
All things you’ve previously owned, of course.
” He winks and gets back to his paperwork.
“It’s like you read my mind or something.” I do need to pee, but the way he speaks just draws me in. He’d be an amazing storyteller.
“Or something.” He laughs but still doesn’t look up.
The bathroom is disappointing. I was expecting something fantastical, like a giant natural spa among a rock clearing with a sparkling waterfall for ambience.
Instead, it looks like a regular bathroom.
Toilet, sink, shower, mirror. Tiled walls, a frosted glass door…
I shrug to myself, hoping the rest of this Shade place isn’t as mundane as this.
I know there’s a joke somewhere about this shower water being hot as Hell, considering where I am, but Danika was always the funny one.
Goddess, I miss her face. Her smile. Her tinkling laugh.
I allow just one single tear—okay, the shower water may have disguised others but I’m calling it one—to fall down my cheek before I wash it away.
The clothes options Pierce told me about are really nice.
Past-life me had good taste. I choose an all-black dress, milkmaid-style, with a tie-up waist and square-cut front.
Thankfully, my bra sits just right and the girls look fabulous.
The skirt of the dress floats around mid-calf, but there’s a slit up the left side almost to the top of my thigh.
My regular black ankle boots with the small heel are the perfect addition and I feel every part the witch I’m supposed to be as soon as my charms are all in place. Necklaces, bangles…and three healing crystal rings.
Not that they are much help as I almost slip on the now-wet bathroom mat. Luckily, I catch myself and hold myself up via the basin without landing on my ass.
Pierce is still sitting at the breakfast bar when I come back to the kitchen/living area, but he’s sipping what looks like a steaming cup of coffee and texting on his phone.
“Do they work here? Phones, I mean.” Although mine is somewhere in my fucked up apartment, so I don’t know why I’m asking.
“They do if they’ve been spelled by a faerie or a witch. We can get yours spelled, if you’d like?”
“Everyone I would want to talk to are either kidnapped or dead. My shop is probably in smithereens, and I’m sure the police are after me by now because I have no doubt Trina’s body has been found.
And with me fleeing the scene…well, it doesn’t look good, does it?
They’d probably try and trace it and end up in the middle of the ocean.
” I have no idea if that’s true, but it feels entirely plausible.
“We took care of Trina. Hack made sure we respectfully handled the situation for you. The apartment is clean and we have a couple of our good lackeys running the day-to-day stuff with the shop. You have nothing to worry about.” He grins and sips at his coffee some more, as if he’s just solved world hunger, or better yet, all of my troubles.
“Lackey sounds like another word for a slave.” I frown.
“That’s not what it means. It’s part of our hierarchy.
Hack, Slash, Slay, and I are Liege, we answer to the Dei, who are the top of the food chain.
We have marshals who look to us for leadership, and they usually deal with the lackeys.
Thousands of souls need collecting, daily, or the Earth would become overrun with them, so we have our system.
It works.” He shrugs like he didn’t just give me a huge chunk of information.
“These lackeys can be trusted not to screw with our customers? It’s almost the end of the month and we have to order more stock for the regul—”
“It’s all in hand, little Hex. Bluebell and Agatha are quick learners and their shape shifting abilities mean they are blending into the anthros world easily. Hack made sure we had two of our best in there for you.”
“I honestly don’t know what to say to that.” It’s exactly what I’m thinking, there just aren’t any other words. “Maybe thank you? I need a distraction or to do something other than standing around here. Is it safe for me to go out there?”
I’m beginning to feel a little claustrophobic, but mostly, I need to keep myself busy or my mind is going to create its own little dance.
“No. You have to stay here until Hack returns.”
“Which is when?” The ‘have to’ part of his sentence has my hackles raised. I’m not a fan of being told what I have to do. Makes me feel rebellious.
“It’ll be when the Soulkeepers have finished with him.”
I sigh, because that isn’t music to my ears, but…maybe I can just head on out without permission. I’m a grown ass adult, after all. He can’t keep me cooped up in here for goddess knows how long.
“Fine. Is there any food here?”
“Slay left some pasta in Hack’s refrigerator that I can heat up for you.” He stands and pulls out a container of what looks like a cheese sauce and pasta.
“Please.” I give him my best good girl smile. “I’m just going to explore the house a little.” I back away toward the hall…with the stairs at the end of it.
“Don’t go into the top floor, that’s Slay’s, but feel free to roam the others. This’ll be ready in about ten minutes.”
“Thank you.” I grin again, turning and heading away…toward my freedom.
Maybe I’ll find some other supernatural beings that don’t try and keep me cooped up or cause weird and painful flames to erupt in my stomach.
I head to the stairs and take two at a time, catching my near fall as I trip over my own foot on the last step. It’s almost instinct to stop myself so quickly these days.
Up ahead, I spot what looks like the exit and I waste no time walking through it.
I run for a few hundred yards, putting some space between me and the demons in the house before I pause and take in my surroundings.
Everything is dull and dusky, like all the color in this place has been muted somehow, except for the people.
Supernaturals. Kyn. Whatever the fuck they’re called.
My intention for venturing out is purely selfish, and probably really stupid, but I need to feel like I’m doing something, so I look for anyone with fangs…maybe they’ll know Danika? I’m making a huge assumption that all vampyres know each other, but it’s all I have to go on.
A creature made completely of rock stomps around the corner, moss growing all over his arms and hair, and I very sensibly step out of its way, backing myself up against the wall of what I’m assuming is a house.
The dull gray brickwork is the same as the place belonging to the demons who apparently have no boundaries.
“Hello, youngling. What, pray tell, is a pretty little thing like you doing wandering around The Shade all alone?” The voice isn’t super deep, but it’s not high either, and it’s coming from behind me.
“Oh, fuck!” I jump away from the wall that has a small window with an elaborately dressed being poking their head out. They look mostly human, but they have bright-green skin with eyes to match, and their fingers look longer than what would be considered average.
The green supernatural chuckles and gestures for me to come closer.
“Sit, child. I won’t harm you.” A small stool appears in front of the window, as if it was always there, and I’m impressed.
But I’ve seen magicians perform some incredible things on the TV over the years, this doesn’t feel super special yet.
“Are you a demon?” I don’t move closer, but I am curious as to how many kinds of demons there are.
“You insult me with such a label.” They hold their hand to their chest and shake their head. “I am Salzine, a djinn.” They bow their head respectfully. Okay, maybe they’re not a bad guy. They seem pleasant enough. “I can help you find what was lost.”
That catches my attention. Although, I didn’t technically lose Danika, she was taken, but maybe this djinn can help. Unless they’re being all ominous about something completely different.
“Okay, Salzine. How would you help?” First things first, because I want to get into this knowing what to expect.
“Just give me your palm.” They hold out their lanky green hand, palm up, waiting for me to accept their offering.
At the same time, the familiar rattle of my raven friend calls out in the distance.
Maybe this is too busy for her. Too many bodies walking around to enjoy the peace and quiet I get the feeling she loves.
“Okay. And then…?” I take a tentative step closer, watching for a response that doesn’t appear to be coming. “So I just give you my palm and that’s it?”
The djinn continues to sit with their hand out, awaiting mine, and a light grin tipping the corners of their blue-green mouth.
What could possibly go wrong?…is the most ridiculous thought that has no doubt jinxed the fuck out of me, on top of the two hexes I already have…but it’s out there now.
I ignore my own internal dialogue as best I can, mainly because I’m curious again…yeah yeah, it killed the cat, but I’m literally in a whole new world and could die at any moment. So basically, fuck it.
Placing the back of my hand against the awaiting green palm, I step a little closer.
“The lifeline for your soul is plentiful. The multitude of branches…wait…there it is!” The djinn, Salzine, yanks me closer to the window, bending their hairless head closer to my palm.
“Ow!” I cry out as Salzine produces a sharp object out of thin air and stabs it into my palm. It’s impossible to get away because their grip is so tight, so strong, no matter how much I try to tug myself away. “Let me go!”
They continue to ignore me as I struggle to get free, then they spit a green, gooey substance onto the small cut pooling with my blood and let me go.
Of course, I’m still pulling to get away so as soon as I’m free, I fly backward into a hard surface that catches me before I fall on my ass.
“Thank you.” I turn to look at my savior and my eyes widen with a little terror. This woman is huge.
Her grin is the opposite of warm and welcoming.
In fact, I get the distinct impression that she’s hungry and I’m her next meal.
She’s licking her granite-like lips, but it’s so strange because, although she seems carved out of stone, her facial features flow like that of a regular human.
As though she’s made up of hundreds and thousands of tiny rocks making her movements fluid.
“Little anthros thing like you in Shade is food for Gertha.” Her slightly broken English is a deep rumble of scratching rocks, and she chuckles, the sound making her whole body shake.
She has me in her grasp, her thick, solid arm around my waist, and I wish it wasn’t…but this is clearly how I die in this life.
“I’m not food, I’m a witch.” I can still try and stay alive…
“No. Witch smell of power. You smell of anthros.” She chuckles again and begins walking between the dull-looking houses with me held against her chest. My feet are dangling and no matter how much I struggle to get free…it isn’t happening.
This is why I should have listened to the big friendly demon.
Panic is starting to set in as I realize I’m not in fucking Kansas anymore and all this shit is real. It’s not some fantastical thing to be amazed by and explore. It’s deadly and I need to stop pushing aside the traumatic crap that has led me to this point.
Fuck.
The rock woman pauses in front of a tall building made of the same dull brick material as everything else in this place. It must be at least four-stories high. Although, the door she’s knocking on is the same height as a regular two-story house.
It opens and another rock monster stands there, a large wooden stick in his hand and a wide, stoney grin on his face.
“Grong will be pleased with offering.”
“Hey, hello, excuse me?” I find my voice and wriggle around some more—which is absolutely useless, but a girl’s gotta try.
The rock monster at the door looks down to me, his singular eye in the center of his face surrounded by moss and stone.
“Yeah, hi. I’m not an offering. You need to let me go or there is going to be a very angry demon looking for you.
” I put on my best stern face, knowing that what I’m saying is completely believable if what Hack told me about razing villages after I died was true.
He rolls his one eye and stands back from the door to let the one holding me inside.
A nauseating stench assaults my senses and I squeeze my eyes shut.
It’s like rotting food and shit all rolled into one.
I cough because it’s almost too much to take.
I’m close to throwing up over this arm of stone around my middle.
A strange squelching sound seems to enhance the smell and I finally give in, opening my eyes. Oh goddess…I wish I hadn’t.
Human body parts decorate the walls. Actual body parts.
There’s a handless arm, elbow and all, rotting beside a glowing blue candle sconce.
What I’m guessing is a human face, stripped from the skull, is stuck to a wall above a fire pit surrounded by more rock monsters.
They’re all on the ground, with one of them sitting on a chair made from bones, his rock hands resting on skulls.
When they see us, they all cheer, that scratchy rock against rock sound grating on my nerves, and I fight like hell to break free. The grip is still firm, though, and my heart falls to the pit of my stomach.
One of the rock monsters is holding a leg—I know because of the foot in its hand—and it’s charred, half eaten, all of them with remnants of the half-burnt flesh around their stone mouths as though they’ve been passing around the bodies like pieces of chicken.
I’m truly fucked.