Chapter 21

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

I never wanted to be in a car ever again.

By the time we made it back to the city, my body felt like a tense bundle of misery. True to his word, Zane drove for two solid days, only stopping to let us stretch, eat and run to the bathroom. I didn’t get a chance to sleep properly, nor get any escape from Funus and Barnaby arguing about art theory and antiques for hours on end.

It had been hell. Uncomfortable, cramped, boring hell.

Beyond wanting to rest and work out the knots in my calves, I had hoped to get some privacy with Zane. We had some things to figure out, which we needed closed doors to achieve. On the second day, early in the morning when we stopped for gas and Barnaby was still asleep, I had asked if Zane wanted to follow me to the bathroom to discuss some things. When I was told “no,” I explained that the things I wanted to discuss involved fooling around a little, maybe making out and grinding against the sink, just in case he wasn’t picking up the vibes.

I got a sideways look and a “We’re on a time crunch. Focus, hunter.”

Rude.

Like he’s too good to get frisky in a gas station bathroom. I hadn’t realized I was traveling with royalty.

St. Athesall was cloudy and soggy when we got home, and I kept my promise of alerting Sias when we were back in the city limits. Barnaby sprang out of the car like the thing was on fire, which was the only silver lining. I doubted I’d ever have to deal with him trying to go with us on a future out-of-city adventure.

“May I see it now that we’re back?” Funus was asking from Barnaby’s arms, eyes bouncing from me to the trunk.

I scanned the street briefly, the car parked in the alleyway between buildings near Barnaby’s apartment door. There were people bustling around across the street, but the rain kept anyone from sticking around too long.

I wasn’t sure seeing a death scythe from the Goddess herself would mean much to people trying to get to work anyway. People had places to be, and I’d seen people fall over dead without anyone stepping out of the line for lattes before. Gotta love big-city apathy.

The trunk swung open, and Funus’s eyes flared in amazement. The Goddess’s scythe sat under our duffels, the red blade warping the trunk lights into shadowy ghosts. Zane grabbed the bags out of the way so I could pick the weapon up, the bone handle chilly in my grip.

“It’s even more beautiful than I imagined,” Funus whispered. “Gods, I’d give anything to have hands right now.”

“It’s scary,” Barnaby weighed in. “Like most things made of bone and blood crystals. Just looking at it makes me afraid somehow.”

“It’s a weapon crafted from a death goddess,” I reminded him. “I think that’s the point.”

“Is it…you know. Safe?” Barnaby eyed the thing like he was worried it would bite him. “Should I not be around it?”

“I don’t think it can hurt you.” I aimed the blade away from him and held it out, bringing it close for Funus to inspect. “Maybe don’t touch the blade though. It did tear a hole into the void so, you know, be cautious.”

“I can feel the presence of her in this blade,” Funus marveled. “Like a whisper in the darkness. The magic dances over it like shadows within shadows.”

“The runes across the handle are very interesting.” Barnaby dared to lean in a bit more, studying the writing. “I’d love to translate them. What is the language exactly? Maybe I can?—”

Barnaby reached out a tentative hand, his fingers gliding over the handle to feel the carvings of the ancient runes etched into the surface of the bone. The moment his skin made contact, a dark spiderweb splintered up his fingers, evaporating the flesh from his bones in the blink of an eye. He screamed and jerked backwards, nearly dropping Funus to the wet pavement and shook his hand to try and get the magic dispelled.

As quickly as it had happened, the dark magic faded, his skin regrowing over black bone like nothing happened.

“Shit! Barns, are you okay?!” I threw the thing back into the trunk and caught his arm, inspecting it for damage.

“You said it was safe!” he shrieked at me, ripping his arm away from me to test his fingers’ mobility. “What the hell was that?”

“I said to be cautious. This is my first Death Goddess weapon, you know. I don’t know the fucking rules. Zane touched it without going skeletal.”

“It seems that only beings touched with death magic can wield the blade,” Funus surmised. “It must repel the living.”

“Great,” I groaned. “That doesn’t complicate things, at all. Love that for us. Barns, you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” He wiggled his fingers and scowled at the scythe. “I think. Ugh. I’m going to have nightmares about that thing. It shouldn’t be out, Dallas. Can’t you make it…you know. Go back in?”

I opened my mouth and Zane slapped the back of my head.

“Don’t.”

“I wasn’t gonna,” I lied. “This isn’t the time for ‘That’s what he said’ jokes, Zane. Saints, be professional.”

“Do you know how to get the blade back into its resting state, Funus?” Zane asked the head as I rubbed the back of mine.

“Perhaps we need to just retrace the events leading up to when it left its ‘resting state’ as it were.” Funus eyed the blade then swung his gaze up to me. “What was happening when the scythe left your body?”

“I was giving Zane blood,” I answered, straight-faced and calm. “To heal the wound on his cheek.”

“Was something different from the last time you gave him blood?” Funus interrogated. “Different emotional state, maybe? It had been quite stressful.”

“Uh yeah. That must have been it.” I coughed. “Super stressed out. You know. With the whole…deal.”

Barnaby narrowed his eyes at me like the suspicious jerk he was and Zane exhaled.

“Shut up,” I told the Thrall before he could rat us out. “Shut all the way up.”

“I’ve never seen you bashful before,” Sias’s voice washed over me like a wave, nearly sweeping me off my feet. Approaching from the other end of the alley, Sias’s silhouette was lithe, his movements water trailing through smoke. He wasn’t in his normal business attire but something closer to expensive casual: black turtleneck sweater and a long coat, jeans fitted to his hips like they were made custom. His long, golden waves were pinned back around his horns, with a few strands loose to rest across his broad shoulders.

Chromatic eyes watched me, swirling purple and blue, matching the bruise across his cheek.

“You’re hiding something, Dallas Wilde. It’s very rare to see you flounder.”

“I’m not floundering,” I argued, but my steam had run dry at seeing the wounds on his face. His brow had a split that was taped closed, exhaustion tugged at the corners of his eyes. I left my post near the trunk to meet him on the other side of the car, taking in his injuries.

“They’re superficial,” he answered what my face was projecting. “You don’t need to be so concerned.”

“Why didn’t you get healed?” I reached up but caught myself. “Why stay hurt?”

Purple melted to a heartbreaking pale blue, rimmed with black remorse. He ground his teeth against the hurt, his head giving a subtle shake.

“I don’t want to. Not yet.”

While I wasn’t sure where we stood in any official status, I knew that the pain on his face wasn’t something I ever wanted to see again. My heart quaked at seeing the wounds mar his features and his eyes. I moved in and hugged him, breathing deep as I felt his arms wrap around me.

“I’m sorry about Bastian,” I whispered into his shoulder.

He didn’t answer, but I heard him swallow. I felt his fingers trail down my scalp before he released me.

“You sure you’re not bit? You’re okay?” I asked again as I stepped back from the embrace.

“I’m fine.” His eyes lifted from mine, the color shifting back into a purple hue as he watched the group behind me. “Is that a skull?”

“Ah, yeah.” I cleared my throat and introduced Sias to our new, dead companion. “Sias, this is Funus. He’s the last er, ‘survivor’ of the necromancy council.”

“Hello there,” Funus greeted him. “Glad to meet you.”

“Oh.” Sias’s eyes went lilac. “Hello. I wasn’t expecting you to talk.”

“He does that a lot,” Zane added dryly. “Novelty wore off about two days ago.”

Sias hummed knowingly, then gave a casual sweep over Zane.

“Zane. You’re looking very fed. Flushed.”

I rolled my eyes but they got stuck when Zane cracked the tiniest little smirk, like the man had the ability to look coy about something.

The vampire said, too secretly sultry for my brain to handle, “I am.”

It was Sias’s turn to crack a grin and I inhaled to demand to know what the hell that exchange was when I was cut off.

“We were just discussing what to do with that ,” Barnaby snarled, pointing at the scythe in the trunk. “The other thing we hauled back from the Silent Steps with us, besides Funus who talks a normal amount if you’re not incredibly rude.”

Sias trailed over to peer into the trunk, his golden brows lifting.

“Explain.”

“I’m not sure where to begin,” I confessed. “There’s a lot of pieces here.”

“Dallas has had the Death Goddess’s scythe in his chest the whole time, and we just discovered it after it shot out of his chest at the Silent Steps,” Zane stepped in. “Now we’re trying to figure out how to put it back into his chest so Florence Pierce can’t get her hands on it.”

“Florence Pierce?” Sias wheeled on me, eyes going into a tangerine flare. “Dallas, you didn’t. That woman is mad.”

“Oh, I’m fucking aware.”

“We’re trying to figure out what caused the scythe to come free in the first place,” Funus brought the topic back up, and I gestured for him to shut his mouth. “It had been hiding in his chest for quite some time until two days ago.”

“I see.” Sias scanned over the blade, tangerine fading into violet as he turned his eyes to me. “Tell me, does this blade have something to do with when Zane feeds on you?”

“It’s complicated,” I hedged, stomach alive with butterflies. “But kinda. It kinda…wiggles around in my chest when Zane needs to drink. It finally decided to make itself known in the cemetery.”

Sias lifted his violet eyes from me and brandished them to the vampire. The color swirled blue, then went into the pinkish hues I knew very well.

My Thrall and my incubus flame exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher, but Sias’s color went into a new shade of orchid I’d never seen on him. It wasn’t the bright pink I normally saw before I got to be thrown into a night of passion, but something softer and bright. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on behind the swirl, but it made my chest thump.

Sias inhaled slowly, and whispered, “I see.”

“Don’t try and touch it,” I warned him as he approached. “It turned Barnaby’s hand into bones for a second. Maybe our best bet is to try and hide it in the apartment for…the time…” I slowed down as Sias came to stand in front of me, his hands reaching up to cup my cheeks.

“Relax.” He stroked his thumb over my cheekbone, a soft cascade of charm magic draping over me like a blanket fresh from the dryer. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had to calm you after that blade made a fuss, is it?”

“No.” I got lost in watching how his eyes danced like a rainbow storm. My muscles eased, my heart skipped around as I breathed in amber and tobacco.

“The night I brought you both to the club and Zane fed on you, I remember you commanding me to charm you in the middle of it.” He inhaled like he was smelling a newly cut bouquet of flowers. “You tasted like absinth and dissolved sugar. That’s how you taste now, deadly allure and sweet poison.”

A shiver radiated up from my spine to my jaw, the world falling away as Sias pulled me deeper into his charm. I wasn’t in the alley anymore, standing over a trunk with an ancient, dangerous Goddess scythe. I was in a euphoric bliss with his touch. I felt safe. Hidden.

I moved without question when he steered me in a half-circle, breaking eye contact so he could hold my shoulders from behind.

“Relax,” his voice rumbled in my ear, breath kissing the lobe. His fingers lifted my chin, my eyes falling shut. “Breathe, sweet boy. You’re fighting too much.”

I leaned back against him, exhaling a deep breath I hadn’t felt myself take. Gods, it felt amazing to not feel the knots in my shoulders, or the dread of everything pressing me into the dirt. I could breathe, I could relax.

And I had missed him so goddamn much.

I felt the thump before I could process what it was, and opened my eyes just as the last bit of the scythe’s handle was absorbed back into my chest.

I blinked as the charm spell started to fade, the empty trunk massive without the burden of the Goddess’s weapon inside.

“What just happened?” I touched my chest where the handle had been, only skin and my tattered shirt present.

“Wow.” Barnaby’s eyes were bright for a second, teal fading into his normal black. “It worked.”

“How did you do that?” I turned to look at Sias, who’s eyes were no longer pink. “Better question, how the hell did you know that was going to work?”

“I didn’t.” Sias removed himself from me carefully. “But if my charm magic helped you contain it before, I assumed it was worth testing the consistency of it.”

“That’s one problem solved.” Zane shut the trunk. “Now we can at least keep it out of view of Florence. We just need to make sure it doesn’t leap out again.”

I wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, considering what had made it “leap out” was something I wanted to continue to explore, but I bit my tongue and nodded.

“We’ll discuss what was promised to Florence.” Sias didn’t keep the disdain out of his voice. “Because she is not someone who will respond to you showing up empty-handed well. This is a bigger shit show than you realize, Dallas.”

“I’m fully aware of the scale of the shit show, Sias. If you had any idea of the intense fuckery we just experienced, you’d know we’re ready to take on the damn world at this point.”

Sias hummed, not sounding convinced, but pulled a small plastic bag from his coat pocket. Inside of the bag was a small, plastic device with smears of blood across it. He dropped it into my hand, happy to be rid of it.

“Bastian’s tech?” I asked, and he nodded. The tiny piece looked like a bent square with sharp, golden teeth. The thick casing had been cracked, a few of the prongs bent the wrong way.

I pocketed the device and asked, “Do you know anyone he worked with that would have access to anything close to this? Or do you know if he was in too deep with someone dangerous?”

“Bastian works,” Sias paused to correct himself. “Worked with a lot of powerful people, but no one I’m aware of that has any ties to magic tech. It’s still illegal. Even tech as trivial as manipulating cameras with glamour is a felony. This would be considered a war crime.”

“Did he dabble in Death Goddess stuff like Omar did?” Zane took the chip to examine it. “Did they have mutual friends?”

“I’m their mutual friend.” Sias placed his hands in his coat pockets. “They barely knew each other. I’ve tried to think of any angle where this makes sense, or who could be remotely tied to something like this, but I haven’t a clue. Why him? Why would he come for me?”

“Sometimes when grunts are first turned, they run off instinct,” Zane told him gently. “They go after friends and family first, because it’s fresh in their brain. I don’t think it was personal.”

Sias’s eyes went blue for a second, jaw tight.

“I’m not sure if that makes me feel better.”

“We’ll go talk to Dex, try and get some answers,” I told him. “Do you want me to come by the tower afterward?”

“I’m coming with you,” Sias told me, with zero room for negotiation. “I’m not sitting on the side for this, Dallas. Bastain was my friend. I cared about him, and I’m going to see this through.”

“I’m not going to try and stop you, but I want you to understand that if this trail leads us to vampires, I’m not putting you in front of them,” I told him with the same limited threshold for negotiation. “I’m not putting you in danger, Sias.”

“Of course not.” Sias pushed his coat aside to take out his holstered gun, ejecting the clip to show me his new golden bullets, glowing with life magic. He slid the clip back home and pulled a bullet into the chamber, then placed it back into the holster like he was some deadly cowboy from another era. “I’m putting myself there, darling. I don’t let anyone put me anywhere I don’t want to be.”

“You brought me some of those, right?”

“If you’re a good boy.”

“Gods, that’s my cue,” Barnaby complained, sounding nauseated. “Let’s go, Funus. We’ll let them handle the rest of this without us.”

“Dallas,” Funus called before Barnaby could carry him away. “I don’t understand nearly enough of the terminology you’re discussing with that small object in the bag, but if it is controlling death magic and corrupting vampires, you must destroy it. The deities put rules in place for a reason. Chaos and death magic have no place together.”

I wanted to laugh, but instead gave the head a nod. “We’ll get it sorted. Don’t worry.”

I didn’t know the logistics of how a possessed skull had the ability to sigh, but Funus exhaled like a worried parent as Barnaby carried him inside the apartment.

“Does he realize that ‘chaos and death magic’ basically describes you?” Zane asked.

“I almost wasn’t able to answer with a straight face.”

“Darling, there is nothing straight about you.” Sias tilted his head in the direction he came from. “I brought my car. We’ll use it to get to your tech contact.”

“I know Dex can shine some light on this. She’s expensive, but she knows her shit.” I followed him out of the alley, his beautiful, luxury car parked next to the curb. “Or she will at least point us in the right direction.”

The moment my body was in daylight, the warmth of the sun daring to peek out from behind the gloom of the clouds, I should have known my luck was about to turn. Too many positive things happened in a row for me not to have had my guard up.

One second, I was thinking to myself, “Man, maybe today won’t be a bucket of balls,” and the next I heard a very angry cop voice.

I turned at the sound of my name being called just in time to get a haymaker to the jaw, staggering me sideways.

Preston Cheslock was baring his teeth like a rabid dog, wearing his civilian costume with enough stubble to warn me he wasn’t in a good place. I rubbed my jaw as I got the world to stop spinning, blinking at the disgruntled DHAP officer.

“Friend of yours?” Sias asked casually, standing near his car.

“Uh, no.” I tested my jaw then cut Zane a look. “You are the fucking worst bodyguard.”

“You’re not dead,” he pointed out, unhelpfully. “What did you do now?”

“The fuck makes you think I did something? I’ve been with your stupid ass!” I yelled.

“Wilde, you fucking asshole,” Preston roared. “I told you to answer your goddamn phone!”

“It got smashed, you damn psycho. What’s your problem?”

“The vampires are my problem!” His chest heaved, pain rippling over his face. “Seyyid’s in the hospital. We told you to answer your phone.”

“It got—it doesn’t matter. What happened? Is he alright?”

“No, thanks to you,” he snapped. “We kept trying to get you here because we found a lead. We tracked some vamps to the south side near the old railway. One of them was an oni who was able to use fear magic to scare us. When we couldn’t get ahold of you, we went in solo.”

“Why the hell did you do that?” It was my turn to get angry, jaw punch aside. “You didn’t take any cops? DHAP officers?”

“They didn’t believe us,” Preston ground out. He verbally stabbed me, his temper flaring with his sorrow. “They dismissed it. We didn’t have any help.”

“You don’t get to put this on me, Preston. I was dealing with my own shit,” I countered. “What the hell happened to Seyyid?”

“We cornered the oni vampire near the old station, got some nets ready to trap it and bring it in. The second we got the net over it, there was an explosion.” Preston shook from anger, eyes glassy with rage. “There was an implant in the thing’s head, Wilde. It blew up. Seyyid got knocked back into a beam and passed out. He hasn’t woken up. That was three days ago.”

“Fuck.” I shut my eyes to digest what he was saying and to have a break from the hurt dripping off the guy.

This was getting worse by the minute.

“DHAP officers still don’t believe you? Was there any evidence left over?” I opened my eyes to see him dash some tears away, still seething.

“Of course they don’t believe me. I got put on leave. I can’t even go after these monsters after what they did to Seyyid.”

“Did you happen to find anything in the remains?” Zane asked. “Any fragments or pieces of the tech?”

Preston hadn’t been paying any attention to Sias or Zane up until that point, his anger and focus being exclusively pinned to me. His posture was about as loose as a plank of wood, but the moment he drank in the sight of Zane, his body turned to pure stone.

I saw the moment he realized who was standing there, saw the spark of rage that ignited next to the bolt of fear that sent his body into action. Preston was a trained officer who had just recently gone through a nightmare scenario with his boyfriend, so the last thing he needed was another vampire to face.

His hand flew for his firearm, but he wasn’t as fast as the incubus who already had his weapon trained.

“Rethink your move, officer.” Sias cocked his gun. “I don’t want to put you down.”

“You’re working with them,” Preston hissed through his teeth, raising his hands. “You’re a fucking traitor.”

“Dude. No. Way off.”

“We’re investigating the same thing you are,” Zane clarified as he disarmed Preston, tossing the gun under Sias’s car. “We’re going to our tech contact to try and get an idea of what it is we’re dealing with.”

“You’re the same Thrall bastard we fought when Seyyid was bit,” Preston growled, glaring daggers through Zane. “Why should I trust a damn word you say?”

“Because if I wanted to kill you, I would have,” Zane clarified. “Easily.”

“Preston,” I got him to look at me after he tried to stab Zane again with his glare. “Do you think it’s worth investigating the old tracks? Was there anything there?”

I imagined that the war going on behind Preston’s eyes was one hell of a battle. He cycled from looking so angry he might explode, to cooling into a remorse so profound it made tears fall from his cheeks. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I could guess it was something along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy” while still managing to call me a bastard.

“You want us to get the assholes who hurt your guy?” I probed. “Then tell us what you know. I’ll bring you back a piece of them.”

“There’s something at the tracks,” he finally confessed, heartbroken and tired. “I don’t know for sure, but it seemed like the vampires were being summoned back there. Seyyid thought there might be something in the old underground medical station they decommissioned.”

“You know where that is?” I asked Sias, who nodded, then turned my attention back to the disheveled officer. “Go be with Seyyid. We’ve got this handled.”

Preston almost argued, I saw it play across his face. Wet streaks were left behind after he scrubbed his face with one hand, a long sniff held back anything else from falling.

“You said you’d bring me a piece,” he reminded me. “You make them pay for hurting him.”

“Hey, vampire punishment is my specialty,” I reminded him as I slipped into Sias’s car. “Don’t follow us or Zane’s gonna throw you off a bridge.”

Zane rolled his eyes and got into the car as Sias brought the engine to life, and we left the DHAP officer glaring at us in the rearview mirror.