Deathwish

12

I hadn’t known that the Auphe would let us escape the relatively painless death of a sixteen-floor fall. I’d strongly suspected, but I hadn’t known. I had known the only other option was not preferable. I turned my head, the grass rustling in my ear, and watched as Cal continued to stare at the sky, memorizing it, as if it were the last one he’d ever see. The faith he’d once had at the beach, the determination since, had drained away, leaving his face blank and empty. I watched it go as the stomach-wrenching nausea from the gate slowly began to subside. Cambriel, and the stranger who’d gotten in the Auphe’s way at the hospital—it was all hitting him now.

He’d kept his word, anticipating the Auphe twice . . . as much as anyone could. You could anticipate a tornado, a tsunami, yet there were times when there was no place to go to escape them. This, I thought, was one of those times.

“Did you flip them off on the way down?” I asked.

“Hell, yes, I did.” He gave a small smirk, but it faded away almost instantly, and the emptiness was back again.

I sat up, reached over him to take his right hand that still held his gun, and placed it on his chest. “If the time comes and we can’t win,” I said steadily, “you go first.” I’d done all I could to protect him his entire life. I would protect him at the end of it as well.

His knuckles tightened on the Desert Eagle. “That won’t stop them from killing the rest of you.”

“No, but it will infuriate them, madden them. If I take the one chance their race has at survival, they’ll take the rest of us quickly. They’ll be too infuriated to do otherwise.” And if they didn’t . . . we’d fight until our choices were gone. If it came to the torture the Auphe had promised, we would have an escape. A clean death. I’d rather die by my hand than the hand of an Auphe. Either way, Cal wouldn’t have to see it. I might not be able to save his life, but I could save him that, and I could save him from much worse. I would never let the Auphe take him again.

He looked at me with eyes unutterably exhausted and far older than they had any right to be. “Together.”

“Together,” I promised. I held up a hand and he let go of the gun to clasp it, hard and desperate, then he pulled himself up to a sitting position.

He let go and rubbed his face. “I think we have codependency issues.”

“There’s no one I would rather have them with, little brother.” I stood and nudged his hip with my foot. “Up. You need to sleep. One hour in a day and a half doesn’t quite qualify.”

“Cyrano,” he responded. The shadows under his eyes had advanced to circles so dark they were almost black. “I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again.”

I thought he would’ve proven that true had I not palmed two sleeping pills at the hospital. Slipped into his coffee, he’d collapsed on the living room couch, dead to the world. Promise, who stood beside me, leaned down to brush the hair from his face. She didn’t bring up the breeding remark the Auphe had made on the hospital stairwell. Either she didn’t truly want to know or knew Cal wouldn’t want me to talk about it. “We’re not going to survive this, are we?” she said softly.

I said nothing. It was answer enough.

“Perhaps you, Cherish, and Robin would if you ran,” I said eventually. “If you hid. Once Cal and I are gone, they’d have little reason to follow you. You can’t torment those who are already dead. Wasting their time on you would be pointless.”

“But the Auphe are mad. What is pointless to us may not be so to them.” Her hand wrapped around mine. “All my life I’ve only survived. With you, I’ve actually lived. That is worth dying for.”

To say I had mixed emotions on that was an understatement. Pride and automatic refusal. But I could refuse all that I wanted. Promise would do what she wished.

Cherish would run. Oshossi would suddenly seem not quite so bad. He could kill her, but the Auphe would kill her. As for Goodfellow . . . a knock on the door, a scant moment of metal scraping the lock, and he was there. “So,” he said impatiently, “are we going after Oshossi or not? I had to perform with someone far, far below my standards to get this information. I would hate for it to go to waste.” His annoyance faded as he took us in. My stony face, Promise’s determined one, and Cal limply unconscious and worn to his last reserves.

“Arhidia, what’s happened now?” The apprehension was easily read in his tense frame.

I filled him in. Halfway through, he was on one of the chairs with his head in his hands. When I reached the part about us plummeting over the edge, he was muttering over and over under his breath, “Gamiseme. Gamiseme. Gamiseme.”

I spoke enough Greek to agree with him. I repeated the same thing to him that I had to Promise. “You should go. When the three of us are gone, they’ll have no reason to come after you. And as long as you’ve lived, no one could be better at hiding than you, assuming they could even pick you out from the other pucks. None of us expect you to die with us.”

His shoulders braced and he straightened to lean back against the chair. “And miss all the fun?” The careless smile disappeared. “I’ve run from battles all my life, counted my own life as far more important than anyone else’s. You, on the other hand, have faced death with me. For me. No one in all my years has ever done that. I stand with you now.” He turned a little green with the words, but he was resolute all the same.

It wasn’t what Cal would’ve wanted. It wasn’t what I wanted, but bravery and loyalty could be unshakable. In this case, I knew it was. We would, if nothing else, give the Auphe something to think about.

“Tell us what you learned of Oshossi,” I said, changing the subject. There was nothing more to say about it. Nothing more to do but to go down fighting.

Cal had mentioned the brownstone Robin had told him about on the phone. And as far as the puck could tell, Oshossi had no backup locations. “It’s that or the park with his zoo. If he kicks our asses, well, that was that. But if we come out ahead on this one and he makes a run for it, then we’ll only have eight-hundred-some acres to search for him. What could be easier?”

“Soon. Coming soon.” We turned as Cal mumbled in his sleep, and it wasn’t Oshossi he was dreaming of. That I knew. His hand clasped open and shut. It was the serrated-edged combat knife he always slept with that he was missing. I picked it up from the coffee table and slipped the handle into his hand. His disturbed breathing smoothed out and he dropped into a heavier sleep.

“One last time,” I said to Cherish who had appeared at the hallway entrance. “We’ll try one last time for you and then, unfortunately, I believe you’ll be on your own.”

“It’s more than I could ask,” she said gravely.

It was much more, but Promise was willing to die with us. I owed her daughter at least one more effort. Although I was beginning to wonder—all this over a necklace? Oshossi might have his pride on no prey escaping him, but this seemed excessive over a handful of rocks and metal that held no other purpose. There is pride and then there is obsession. And to walk away when he might have easily killed us, it gave one pause. But I’d given Promise my word and I would live up to it this one last time.

Cal slept nine hours, knuckles white from his grip on the knife’s handle every minute of those hours. I ignored the ache in my head and watched him. There had been a time when he had slept that way every night, except he had done it under a bed curled in a ball. The first time the Auphe had taken him, when he’d come back he’d spent months that way.

During that time I’d slept little as I watched for the Auphe. Cal hadn’t talked much then; some days not at all. We’d been hiding in Charleston, South Carolina, at that time. I’d studied martial arts since I was twelve. Whatever city Sophia had dragged us to, I’d find a dojo. I’d collect cans or, when I could fool someone about my age, work any job I could find to pay for those lessons. I’d never forgotten that face at our kitchen window when I was seven. Or the others I’d seen since. And at eighteen, almost nineteen with a barely responsive brother, I went every day for as many hours as I could, taking him with me. I hadn’t known the Auphe for what they were then. I thought I would have a chance.

I became a warrior, a killer, but all I had managed was to put off the inevitable.

Eighteen Auphe. It may as well have been a hundred.

I detected the change in Cal’s breathing and looked up from the blade lying across my lap. “We’ve had a helluva run,” he said. “At least those bitches will remember that.”

We had. The steel that suddenly ran through me was as solid and real as the one that rested on my legs. “We have and we will. We are not giving up.” I couldn’t. I’d spent my life refusing to give up. I wasn’t going to start now. “The Auphe closed your gate. Do you think you could do that to one of theirs?”

He sat up and thought about it. He had a crease across his face from the couch cushion, and what I suspected was a slight hangover from the drugs. “Yeah, I think I could. I felt how they took it. How they tore it apart. I’m pretty sure I could do it. But what good would that do? The last thing we want is to keep them hanging around. If they want to take off, I think letting them leave the party is our best bet.”

“I don’t know if we can use it in our favor or not, but it never hurts to have information.” It was a piece of an impossible puzzle, but there were times amazing things could be done with one piece. “We’re going after Oshossi tonight,” I said, moving on. “Are you up to it?”

He looked at his watch to check how many hours he’d slept and scowled. “You mean after you drugged me?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” I said without remorse.

“Bastard,” he said affectionately, before yawning. He then shook his head, getting rid of the last of the drowsiness. “Yeah, I’m up for it. Hell, compared to this morning it’ll be like a vacation.” He tapped the black blade of his knife against the mala bracelet around his wrist. Putting down the knife, he pulled the beads off and handed them to me. “Thanks, Nik, but I think being Auphe now might be the best thing when the time comes. If Midol deosn’t work, I’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.” He gave a darkly feral flash of teeth. “Next time they call me family, they’ll have reason to.”

I fingered the beads, then slipped them back on. It was his decision, whether I agreed with it or not. And I wholly did not. His grin faded and twisted. “Sorry I didn’t get us out of this like I said I would. I thought being like them would be enough.” It wasn’t, because he wasn’t. But he couldn’t see that.

“It’s not over yet,” I said.

Neither of us would let it be.

As Cal had not been in the mood for the revenant outside the Ninth Circle days ago, I was not in the mood for Oshossi. I was also not in the mood for Cherish having brought Xolo along. At best he’d be a distraction for her; at worst he’d be killed. It was not my problem or my responsibility, but it was an annoyance.

“You will not be at top form if you’re watching out for him,” I told her. And watch out for him she would. He seemed to have the defensive capabilities of a sloth.

“Do not worry,” she assured. “He hides well, and I’m not leaving him alone. If the Auphe discover the house, he’d have no chance at all.”

Cal was studying the brownstone, along with the rest of us, from across the street. It was midnight, with snow still piled in heaps off the sidewalk. “Nik’s right. He has the kick-ass moves of soggy breakfast cereal. You could’ve put him in a kennel. He could’ve had some nummy-nums and a nice scratch behind the ear.”

“You’re not going to get over the fact he beat you in cards, are you?” Robin drawled.

“Shut up. It was a fluke, okay?” Cal was only going through the motions. He’d seen Oshossi nearly kill me, without even making much of an attempt. He was, let us say, pissed. Or homicidal. Both words worked.

“Of course. Bowser couldn’t possibly be smarter than you,” Goodfellow said smoothly. “Perhaps you can get matching flea collars.”

If Xolo understood any of the conversation, he didn’t give an indication of it, his eyes staring dreamily as they always did. He didn’t have to understand it. I did and was tiring of it. “Enough,” I said. “Let’s go. Promise, Cherish, you take the third floor. We’ll take the first. If he’s not on either one, we’ll trap him between us.”

On the other side of the street, Robin picked the lock of the door and Promise and Cherish swiftly climbed—almost floating—their way up the stone facade, Xolo clinging to Cherish’s back. We were inside in ten seconds, and I heard the breaking of glass above us. “The second floor is mine,” I said, spotting the stairs. “You two search down here.” Cal hesitated—obviously Oshossi’s scent was everywhere in the house; unable to pin it down, he followed the command.

The runner on the stairs was as richly expensive as the first floor of the house. Oshossi apparently liked to live well. I was curious to see if he would die as well.

I had my chance to find out almost immediately. He was waiting just past the top of the stairs, his machetes in hand. “Stubborn human. I spared your life last time, ineffectual prey that you are.” The pointed teeth bared. “I make no exception this time.” Long black claws sprouted from his fingertips, curving as the machetes did.

I simply appreciated the lack of snakes. Unholy waterfalls of serpents, I could do without.

I caught the first blow of his machete on my katana; the second as well. He swung each blade with equal skill and he was quick, quicker than Seamus had been, but not as quick as he thought he was. He couldn’t use his enormous strength. The metal of his weapons would shatter as easily as mine. I continued to fend off his whirlwind of blows one-handed while I drew a throwing knife. He lunged to one side, and I missed his throat, but I didn’t miss his shoulder. He narrowed his yellow eyes. “Not so ineffectual after all.” The predator teeth flashed in satisfaction. “I will enjoy this.”

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have. Killing was a fact of life, not something to take pleasure in. But this time, having lost so many times in the past days, I was going to enjoy this as well. I shouldn’t, but I was.

I already had another knife in my hand and threw it as well. He knocked it aside with one of the machetes and lunged at me with the other, swinging it in a quicksilver blur. I came under it, then dived to one side before it could change trajectory and bury itself in my back. It tore through my coat as I rolled and sliced my katana to hamstring him, but he was already across the room. I didn’t give him any breathing space, and was on him again in an instant. He was fast, a challenge, but he was no Auphe. And he might not realize it yet, but he wasn’t me either. Not blade to blade. Hand to hand would be a different story, but for now . . . he was mine. It wasn’t overconfidence. It was fact.

I couldn’t knock either machete from his grip; he was too strong for that. But I could go around them, under them, over them. I sliced his thigh and a path across his ribs as he did across mine, then I got behind him and slammed a foot in the small of his back. He hissed in disbelief, but he didn’t give up, whirling to face me before I could bury a blade in his back. I doubted he could remember the last time he had been defeated. What was good for the ego could be disastrous in battle. Humility could go a long way toward keeping one alive.

Cal had said bullets had barely staggered him. It was time to see what a blade through his heart would do. He dropped the machetes and reached for me with hands that had flipped over a car. At the same time, I’d pulled my tanto knife and was jabbing it directly toward his heart. Or rather, where I was making an educated guess his heart might be.

And that’s when they came down the stairs: Promise, Cherish, and her shadow, Xolo. Oshossi’s gold eyes widened, his hands dropped away, and he ran, throwing himself through the second-story window before my knife could hit home. There was the crash of glass, the thud of running feet, and as I moved to the window, I saw him disappear, weaving through the traffic.

A fighter so fierce, so unyielding, that he couldn’t recognize he was seconds away from death, yet the sight of two vampires sent him running. With an ego so large, I imagined he would’ve thought he could take them as well. Yet he had fled.

“He’s gone,” Cherish said bitterly. “Maldíígalo al infierno.”

Xolo’s eyes were brighter than I’d ever seen them as he eased down the stairs behind her, but they dulled just as quickly when he saw Oshossi was gone.

“We have to go,” Cal called from below. “Cops are coming.”

All the shattering of glass was bound to have drawn attention. As for staying downstairs, he knew I’d call him if I needed him in the fight. Otherwise I needed him to stay out of the way. I needed the room. If only Promise and Cherish had known that.

I put away my katana, fetched my fallen blade, and moved down the stairs to the first floor. “For the best hunter in South America, he spends quite a bit of time either escaping us or letting us go,” I mused. I gazed over my shoulder at Cherish and wondered if she was telling the truth—the entire truth. Xolo’s hazy eyes drifted over me. Then again, Cherish was guarding what seemed the most helpless of chupas, and she was Promise’s daughter. Something completely worthless couldn’t have come from Promise. Could it?

No. No, Cherish deserved a chance.

“Nik, you okay?” Cal’s hand urged me toward the door. I’d stopped, unaware. “Your head hurt?”

Slightly foggy, I shook off my Cherish thoughts for another time and then we were on the sidewalk, moving fast. “No. I’m fine.”

“I’m surprised Oshossi didn’t pick you up and catapult you through the floor,” Robin said. “Much like a Three Stooges movie.”

“We fought with blades. He’s good.” I slid the knife back in its place. “I’m better.”

“Unless he starts throwing cars around again, that makes you hot shit.” Cal was looking over his shoulder with distant eyes. He’d been doing that quite a bit lately. With the Auphe searching for us and finding us more often than not, I wasn’t surprised.

“Cal?”

He jerked his attention back to us. “Yeah, the cars. Stay away from the cars.” He said it to Cherish. “Or start running again, because we’re done. Probably in more ways than one.”

Back at Rafferty’s, Cal watched the snow from the kitchen window. It was falling again, although in scattered swirls rather than the blizzard of before. “Are you hungry?” I asked, about to fix what few groceries we’d stopped and obtained on the way home. I’d already patched up the shallow slash on my side.

He shook his head and kept watching.

“What is it?” Cal wasn’t much for introspection. Unlike Xolo, if he was looking, there was something to see. I moved to his side and saw nothing but snow and hundreds of bare trees.

He narrowed his eyes and kept them on the window. “One of them is watching us.”

The Auphe.

“Right now,” he added grimly.