25. Chapter 25
Bec
When I came to, I opened my eyes but regretted it immediately.
I don’t know what they did to me, but my entire body ached as if I’d been sick.
I also had a headache so bad I wanted to throw up.
I slammed my eyes shut and focused on breathing through the pain.
At least I could breathe now. The band Gale had put around my wrist was gone so the magic must not be active any longer. Did that mean I had a magic hangover?
They were talking so I focused on that.
“This is all your fault, Lars,” Gale said. “I can’t believe you were so dumb as to steal the void-tie from Lomis.”
“Lomis left the tie sitting there,” Lars said. There was a distinct what else was I supposed to do? tone to his voice. “There were a bunch of them on the table. I only took one, I didn’t think he’d notice. I thought maybe he owed us more, you know?”
“Owed us more?” Gale said, sounding half panicked. “The man is dangerous! I told you not to touch anything he was working on in that house. Nothing! We had such a good thing going and now it’s all falling apart. If you hadn’t stolen that damn tie, we wouldn’t be in this fucked up situation.”
“Really it’s Leif’s fault!” Lars said. “If he hadn’t stolen the void-tie from me then we would’ve been able to give it back when Lomis realized it was missing.”
“Telling him your brother took it in the first place kept us from being killed right away, Gale said. She almost sounded like she was talking to herself. “But of course that fucking investigator got to the dog before we could. After I didn’t hear from her for a few days, I knew she was going to be useless.”
“Then I figured out that she had the dog!” Lars said, sounding proud. See, this proves that all the scrolling I do helps us.”
“You’re not doing it for some high purpose,” she snapped. “You found John’s post of the dog wearing the void-tie by accident.”
“Not by accident,” Lars said. “I always look at his account so I can say things to him. He’s uptight about my jokes so I like to give him a hard time.”
“You like being a bully,” Gale muttered. When she spoke again, it was with quiet frustration. “This was only supposed to be some property misuse and illegal importing. None of those are big offenses. Now Leif is dead.”
“It wasn’t just Leif,” Lars said. “Remember I found three piles of dust at the house when I was looking for Leif. I know that was my brother, his boyfriend, and roommate. Their wallets were in their clothes. That’s three people Lomis killed.”
“I don’t plan to be the fourth.” Gale said. “If anything, I’ll give you to Lomis, you're the one who took the void-tie.”
“I told you, I only planned to use it to get a little more money out of Lomis,” Lars said. “I would’ve shared it with you.”
“Except you had to brag to your brother about our business!” Gale snarled at him. I heard some shuffling footsteps and thought that she might’ve shoved him. That was confirmed when Lars let out a muffled grunt.
“Hey, stop that,” he said. “I won’t hesitate to hit you. You're being a real bitch right now, you deserve it.”
“I’m only being a bitch because none of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t acted like a complete idiot. I don’t know why I even brought you in as a partner!”
“You couldn’t do this without me,” he retorted, showing spine for the first time. “Without my job at the port, all those boxes would’ve been found and seized by customs.”
This explained so much. Part of me was highly satisfied that all the puzzle pieces to this mystery were falling into place.
The other part of me was scared I was going to be hurt or even killed. If I survived this, I’d never turn my back on an enemy again.
No, that was the wrong lesson. I’d never go into potential danger without backup.
What I wouldn’t give to see Marduk’s disapproving frown or hear Danzig’s frustrated sigh because then I’d know I was safe.
Gale and Lars were silent for a little while. I risked slitting open my eyes. They were standing not too far in front of me, facing each other both staring down at a phone Gale was holding.
“Do you think they’ll bring the dog?”
“They better,” Gale said.
There was a brief silence, then Lars spoke again. “What if they bring the dog, but he doesn’t have the void-tie on?”
“Then we wake her up and make her tell us what she did with it,” Gale said.
“Would you torture her?”
I really didn’t like how intrigued Lars sounded at the idea of hurting me. I wasn’t restrained, but I felt so weak I was sure I couldn’t manage a fast walk, let alone fight either of them off. For the moment, I was stuck.
“Be quiet, Lomis is messaging me” Gale snapped as the sound of a message arriving came from her phone.
“Lomis has agreed,” Gale said, sounding immensely relieved.
“So he won’t kill us or anything?” Lars said. “I really don’t want to die.”
“I don’t think anyone wants to die,” Gale said, her relief seeming to make her friendlier. “You’re lucky he stopped killing everyone at a distance after Leif or we’d both be dead.”
“He was really angry there for a little while,” Lars said.
“Do you think the guys felt any pain? I mean when Lomis killed them with that weird aging spell, do you think it hurt? Leif probably deserved it for taking that spell thing, but I still don’t like the idea that he felt a lot of pain before he died. ”
“I don’t care if it hurt,” Gale said. “All I care about is that Lomis doesn’t do that to us.”
“We could run,” Lars suggested. “I bet there are other buyers out there that would pay a shit ton for that collar.”
“You are such a moron. Lomis can kill from a distance, and the only reason we’re not dead is because we convinced him Leif stole it in the first place and that we’d be able to find it for him. We’re lucky it takes him so much power to murder people like that or we might already be dead.”
“Oh, right,” Lars said. “I still think…did you hear that?”
When Lars said that, I strained my ears but couldn’t hear anything interesting.
“It’s nothing,” Gale said dismissively. “We’ll be able to see them drive here. There’s only one road into this area, and we’ve got a clear view of it.”
“You forget that there are more ways to travel than cars.”
The strange voice made all three of us gasp. Thankfully, Lars and Gale were much louder than me and no one noticed I was awake.
“Lomis, what are you doing here?” Gale asked, her voice high-pitched and scared. “I thought we were going to be meeting later.”
“You stole my void-tie, and you think I’d simply trust you to return it?
” Lomis’s voice was rough and had a strange cadence.
It made me think of someone who’d smoked all their life and had to measure out their words or risk a coughing fit.
“I’ve been working on that for almost a year.
I left it alone for a few hours to sleep while the spell set.
When I wake up it’s gone. How dare you take from me! ”
I risked opening my eyes. This time it didn’t hurt so much, and I could keep them open.
The casket druid stood there talking to Gale and Lars. The guy didn’t look good. His face was drawn and his skin unnaturally pale. Even worse than the first time I’d seen him.
“M-m-my brother took it,” Lars said, his words babbling out of his mouth with little pause between syllables. “It wasn’t me. You killed him. He deserved it. We’re getting the void-tie back. Really soon. Please don’t kill me!”
“Don’t kill us,” Gale said. “We’ve got the girl who has the dog wearing your void-tie.”
Gale was standing with her back to me and Lars was standing behind her. As Gale spoke, she half turned and pointed at me. Lomis focused past the couple and met my gaze.
There was nothing but evil in his eyes.
Terror made me sit up and try to scoot back. I came up hard against something and Lomis was on me.
“Where is my void-tie!” he roared, spittle hitting me in the face with every word. He grabbed the front of my shirt and lifted me up in the air. “Give it to me!”
So this was how I died.
Danzig
It felt like it took forever to track Bec’s aura. I wasn’t surprised that they took her south, but I didn’t expect to end up in the Tijuana River Valley estuary. Most of it was restricted wet land, which made sense as we got further in. It was away from people and a great place to bury a body.
When I saw Bec lying on the ground next to a car while three figures talked near her, I frantically gestured for Beatrix to go lower.
None of them saw us because of her pixie glamor. I’d be able to surprise them all when I dropped down. When Beatrix didn’t go lower, I signaled again.
“I see her,” Beatrix said, banking away. I frantically gestured for her to get closer, but she shook her head. “We’re supposed to hide and call for backup, remember?”
No, that wasn’t going to work. I needed to get down there and help Bec!
I let go of Beatrix, allowing gravity to take over.
“Danzig, no!” Beatrix cried out and tried to grab hold of me, but she wasn’t fast enough.
This wasn’t the first time I went plummeting to the ground from a dizzying height. It wasn’t my favorite thing, but I knew how to deal with it.
I made myself big and shaped my body so I was much wider than I was thick. Spreading myself out, I caught enough air to change my free fall into something less violent.
When I was close enough to see the druid holding Bec in the air, I focused on going big.
Very big.
By the time I hit the ground, I was probably about a thousand pounds. I couldn’t land on the druid and risk hurting Bec, but my landing was hard enough to make everyone gasp and the druid dropped Bec to turn around and face me.
“You again?” he snarled. “Why are you bothering me? I have nothing to do with your kind.”
I couldn’t talk in my snake form, but it wasn’t as if I wanted to have a conversation with him anyway. I shot my tail out to grab Bec and tuck her safely between my coils, only to have the druid mumble a string of words and break something apart in his hand.
His magic hit me hard. It pushed me back and flayed off most of my protective aura. How had Marduk managed to stand against this for as long as he did?
“Leave him alone!”
I heard the scream at the same time I saw Bec swing something at the druid's head. She was wobbly on her feet and missed, but he stopped attacking me and turned his magic on her.
She flew back, hitting the side of a nearby car, her mouth open in a silent scream. I coiled up my body and opened my mouth to bite the druid in half only to hear gunfire and felt something ping off my side.
The druid pulled his focus and magic off Bec to send his power out at the two humans cowering next to some shrubs. The woman holding a gun fired again, this time aiming at the druid.
“I was trying to help!” she screamed even as she fired again. Dirt kicked up past the druid. He didn’t even flinch. With calm movements, he produced another woven loop and broke it.
The man and woman didn’t even get a chance to scream. Their bodies glowed brightly, then they both turned to ash from the inside out.
It only took a few seconds and both humans were completely gone.
With those two humans disintegrated, the druid turned his attention back on Bec. She'd slumped to the ground, awake but dazed.
I put myself in motion, but I was slow and clumsy. In all my five hundred years, I’d never felt an attack as powerful as the one I’d just endured. It had taken a toll and now I felt sluggish and uncoordinated.
I didn’t make it far before the druid faced me again. At least his back was turned on Bec. I mentally urged her to get up and hide. But she sat there, looking around as if she was trying to figure out where she was and what was going on.
“Talk to me as a man, serpent,” the druid demanded. “I don’t want to waste all my ties killing you. I’d much rather negotiate.”
I didn’t want to shift back to my human form, but I saw the wisdom in stalling. If I had Marduk at my side, we would be able to stand against this druid better.
I drew back and shrank my form until I was in my human body again. He nodded his head and relaxed a little.
“Thank you,” he said. “What do you want in exchange for leaving me alone to finish my work?”
“I have demands,” I said, trying to come up with things to keep him talking but not suspicious.
“What?” he asked with an impatient scowl.
Behind the druid, Beatrix silently landed and went to Bec. Relief almost made me smile. When this was all over, I was going to give the pixie anything she asked for.
I put a haughty expression on my face. “Have you never met a J?rmungandr before? You must not have or you wouldn't have entered my territory without offering me tribute first.”
“Fine, what tribute do you require?” he asked.
I copied the tone and words I’d heard a very old J?rmungandr use when Mom had dragged us halfway around the world to visit him.
“This is not about possessions," I snapped. “This is about respect. Reparations must be made before we can discuss tribute.”
Get comfortable asshole, I thought. I’m going to baffle you with diplomatic bullshit, then rip you into pieces when my brother gets here.