Summoned to Thirteenth Grave (Charley Davidson #13) Page 25

  Still, the smell of coffee did help.

  I turned on the news for the latest. Dozens more admitted. The National Guard patrolled the streets. And two more deaths.

  I took my coffee to the roof of the warehouse. The cool breeze helped soothe my nerves. Walking to the edge, I held out my hand and ran it over the surface of the Shade. It rippled like water, the darkness blurring for a moment before settling.

  Its radius was barely two miles when I’d arrived. Now, it was closer to twenty and growing with every second that passed.

  With one thought, I summoned Osh. He appeared beside me.

  “Have you been able to dematerialize the whole time you’ve been on Earth?”

  “You haven’t?” he asked, an impish sparkle in his eyes.

  “I need you to sit this one out.”

  “I hope you’re joking.”

  “Not even a little, but I do have some jokes if you’d like to hear a few. I have this one about a black lion that chases a girl through a series of burial chambers and ends up mauling her nigh to death. Oh, wait, that wasn’t a joke.”

  “I’m fighting,” he said, his voice so soft I barely heard it.

  “Osh, I need you to watch over Beep. If something should happen to us, you’re the only one who can . . . who can do what’s necessary to protect her.”

  I didn’t want to tell him that part of my decision was based on my one and only vision into the future. Of him being the warrior during the battle with Satan. Of the fact that the outcome of said battle could hinge on his participation or lack thereof.

  “So, I’m your backup plan.”

  “Yes.”

  “I thought Mr. Wong was your backup plan.”

  “He’s my backup plan if we fail to collapse the Shade.”

  “And I’m your backup plan if . . . ?”

  “If we succeed but don’t make it out before it collapses in on itself.”

  He put his hands in his pockets and scanned the landscape. “You have a lot of backup plans.”

  “I’m big on planning. My plans almost never fail completely.”

  He looked into the Shade, mere inches away from us now. “I’d really like to be there.”

  I decided to hit him with part two of backup plan B. “And I’d really like to make out with you right now.”

  He didn’t flinch. Didn’t gasp. Didn’t run away in horror. He simply asked, “And why’s that?”

  “I told you. You’re my backup plan. I need you tip-top.”

  He stepped behind me and grabbed the rail, bracing a hand on either side of me. “You realize even a small dose of you would last me millennia.”

  “Yes.”

  He lowered his head until his mouth was at my ear. “Turn around.”

  I wondered if it was bad that I was about to make out with my daughter’s future main squeeze. If it made me a bad mother. It was most likely frowned upon in most circles.

  I turned in his arms and put my hand on his jaw.

  He watched me through hooded lids, the incredible bronze of his irises shimmering in the low light. A microsecond before he pressed his mouth to mine, he said, “Don’t kill me.”

  “No promises.”

  His mouth covered mine as he closed the distance between us and siphoned out a small sliver of my soul. A cupful of my energy. His muscles stiffened, and he entered the equivalent of a feeding frenzy. He was unable to stop, my life force like a drug and he the addict.

  He grabbed my throat and tilted his head to deepen the kiss, swallowing me in huge, erotic gulps. He was strong. A Daeva. A demon. But even he could only take so much before it killed him. We’d been here before, and I did not want a repeat of that night. We’d almost lost him.

  I pushed gently to dislodge him, but he fought me. Twisted his fingers into my hair. Pressed harder. Drank deeper. It tugged at my very core, the exquisite sensation curling and writhing, wanting to be set free.

  With a strength born of desperation, I shoved as hard as I could, dislodging him and pushing him off me. My knees gave and I sank to the floor, gasping for air.

  He did the same. He fell to his knees and doubled over, his muscles straining to harness the power they’d consumed. To tame it. To control it. After struggling a solid ten minutes, doing his best to conquer the beast inside him, a calmness settled over him. He sat back on his heels, his chest rising and falling as he drew in deep rations of air.

  I crawled to him. Put a hand on his shoulder. Coaxed his attention my way. “Now, you’re ready to take this on.”

  When he looked at me, his face shimmering with sweat, he let loose a charming, confident grin. “Sugar, I’m ready to take on the world.”

  Despite the fact that he wasn’t wearing his signature top hat, he tipped his head, then vanished, leaving me alone with my thoughts once again. It was a dangerous place for me to be.

  I drew in another deep breath of air and summoned backup plan number three.

  * * *

  As color splashed across the horizon, I lay curled against my husband. He pretended to be sleeping, but I doubted, like me, he caught even a single one of the elusive creatures called Z.

  I let my lids drift shut and shifted onto the celestial plane. Once there, I reached out until I could feel all of them, all of Beep’s army, some in standby, others ready for a fight. I could feel Beep sleeping and the Loehrs watching over her. I could feel Cookie wringing her hands, metaphorically because, as always, she had a coffee cup in one of them, and Amber and Quentin praying. I could feel Donovan and Michael and Eric and Pari toasting the good times they’d had. Their families and their friends.

  I could feel Osh pacing, the energy I’d injected into him pumping adrenaline into him by the bucketsful. If he survived it, he’d be even more powerful than before. If he didn’t, I could add his death to the long list of my perpetual fuckups.

  And I could feel Angel, my darling Angel, waiting in the wings. Waiting to be summoned. He’d be waiting a long time. This was not his fight.

  Artemis jumped on the bed and struggled to get in between Reyes and me. She liked to be the middle spoon. I turned over, and Reyes let her in. We rubbed her ears and her neck and her belly. She rolled over to give us more access. She was super accommodating that way.

  “We need curtains,” I said, the sun slipping into the room at an astronomical rate. “Or a nice set of plantation blinds.”

  “Once we’re in there,” Reyes started, but I held up a hand.

  “Not yet. I just want to pretend this isn’t happening for a few minutes more.”

  He reached over and lifted my chin. There was no hiding the wetness in my eyes now. My only consolation was that his were just as wet. “Once we’re in there, I’ll keep them off you.”

  “Reyes,” I said, choking on a sob.

  “You just get to the center. Find the heart.”

  I nodded and fought the quivering of my chin. We both knew what was at stake. Even if we managed to weaken the dimension and cause its collapse, we could very well be trapped inside. Then again, at least we’d be together.

  * * *

  Reyes and I prepared for the coming battle with huevos rancheros and coffee. Lots of coffee. I sat at the table while Reyes made me a plate.

  While waiting, I pulled out my phone and called Uncle Bob, hoping I’d caught him before the plane took off.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked in lieu of a greeting.

  “Did David Taft die?” I asked, following suit. He didn’t say anything, so I prodded with an, “Uncle Bob?”

  “Yes,” he said at last.

  Every muscle in my body weakened, and I dropped my head into my hand. “What happened?”

  “He was gunned down in a parking lot in Cruces.”

  I could hear the engines on the plane rev, so I spoke louder. “He’d been working undercover. Did they find out?”

  “We don’t think so. We think he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He tried to stop a bar fight.”

&nb
sp; “Of course he did.” My free hand curled into a fist. “You knew we were friends. You didn’t think to tell me?”

  “You’ve had a lot on your mind, pumpkin.”

  “Like your sudden yet inevitable betrayal?”

  He didn’t answer for a long moment, then said, “Among other things. Charley, let me come back. Let me help you with this.”

  “No.”

  “After everything we’ve been through.”

  “You could be killed. I can’t do that to Cookie and Amber.”

  “You could be killed, too. I’ll have your back. I’ve always had your back.”

  A pang of regret washed over me. I ignored it. “And what are you going to do? How are you going to fight them? Trust me when I say your six-shooter isn’t going to do you much good.”

  Another moment of silence dragged between us. “Good luck to you, then,” he said at last before hanging up.

  23

  So, when is “old enough to know better” supposed to kick in?

  —MEME

  “I’m pretty sure they know what we’re doing,” I said to Reyes a little while later.

  We sat in Misery, the Jeep, not the emotion, and studied the Shade, which had invaded our humble HQ right in the middle of breakfast.

  Reyes sported classic black apparel, making all the other gods jealous. He wore a black tee, black jeans, and black work boots. I, on the other hand, went for more of a dark charcoal gray.

  Okay, I was wearing black, too. It just seemed appropriate.

  I’d pulled back my hair and braided it to keep it out of my face. I’d considered braiding Reyes’s.

  “How far do you think we’ll get in Misery?”

  “I don’t know. They’re expecting us, so . . .”

  “So, let’s not keep them waiting.”

  The clawed butterflies attacked again as Reyes pulled forward. Once inside the Shade, we’d have no way to dematerialize, no way to escape, but I didn’t know if we’d have access to any of our other abilities. Like spiffy comebacks or walking and chewing gum at the same time.

  I took Reyes’s hand, lowered my head, and summoned Beep’s army. They rose before us. An assemblage of departed as far as the eye could see.

  As we drove forward, the border between the two worlds crossing through us, I had only one regret: I wished I’d hugged Uncle Bob.

  We got about three miles in before they came after us. One tried to rip me out of Misery, which hurt in the corporeal state. Artemis attacked at once, diving through the door and tackling the demon to the ground. They landed hard and rolled into the dirt before I lost sight of them.

  The trick, we soon learned, was to pay attention to oncoming traffic while watching out for demons. Traversing two dimensions at once was not as effortless as one might think.

  The demons, not anchored to the earthly plane, could take us out if we struck one, gliding through Misery and slamming into one, or both, of us. We had to keep a constant vigil, but we were getting closer.

  At one point, an asshat in a Bentley cut us off.

  I yelled to him. “Are you crazy? Do you know what that car cost?”

  Reyes had to swerve to avoid it and instead sped through a demon. It hit him on the left shoulder, causing him to veer into oncoming traffic. I grabbed the wheel as he fought it. But a female sentry latched onto it, wrapped an arm around its neck, and wrenched it free.

  We made it to within two blocks of the apartment building, at which point we had to go on foot. We scrambled out of Misery and ran for it. The sentry cleared the way, fighting the demons.

  I didn’t know if a Shade demon could hurt a sentry. Or worse, kill one. I quickly found out. Their claws slashed through the sentries one by one. Their teeth tearing into them, ripping them apart until all that was left were tattered pieces that disintegrated and sank into the earth.

  I screeched to a halt and looked on as our army—no, Beep’s army—was being killed by the dozens.

  Reyes grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him. I regained my footing and followed him, my heart breaking.

  As we got closer to the apartment building, they attacked in hordes, but the sentry kept them off us. Off me, anyway. They didn’t seem as concerned about Reyes.

  One jumped on his back. I sent Artemis. She dislodged it, but another soon took its place. He twisted around, grabbed its head, and snapped its neck. He did that again and again, as the sentry seemed to only be concerned with keeping them off me.

  I cried out when one slashed Reyes’s back. Blood gushed out so fast it made me dizzy. I ran forward to help, but he stopped me with a murderous glare. Then, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, he drew a blade out of thin air and slashed the demon in half.

  We didn’t know if we would have other powers in this realm. Now we knew.

  Hope surged within me. We were almost to the front door when another wave of Shade demons descended from the roof, dropping onto us like an avalanche of boulders. One landed on top of me, knocking me to the ground. Artemis tried to drag it off, but its claws had found the tender flesh of my stomach and dug in.

  Reyes tried to get to me, but he was fighting them three deep.

  Then he did something ingenious. He brought forth his robe. Black and undulating, it disoriented the demons around him, blinded them, and allowed him to sever their spines one by one.

  I lay on the ground at a stalemate with the Shade demon atop me. Its claws were ready and waiting to rip out my entrails, while Artemis was ready and waiting to rip out its throat, her massive jaws clamped down and holding.

  With the battle raging around us, we were completely still. Deadlocked. Each waiting for the other to flinch when a sword cut through the demon, severing it in half, careful to miss Artemis.

  The demon fell in two pieces on either side of me, and I looked up into the handsome face of . . . Uncle Bob!

  My breath stilled in my chest. He was younger somehow. Stronger. More determined. He reached down to help me up. Before I could say anything, Reyes appeared out of the blacks of his robe and joined us.

  When I blinked in confusion, he said absently, “You weren’t the only one with a backup plan.”

  He motioned Uncle Bob forward, and that was when I saw them. The wings.

  “How?” I asked, but Reyes was already fighting again.

  “Go!” he said, his voice sharp as steel.

  I took off again, sprinting past battle after battle. The sentry held its own. Barely. Uncle Bob and Reyes cleared a path to the stairs, but they’d bottlenecked. Getting past them would take all day, and Reyes was bleeding from several deep wounds.

  Uncle Bob had a few wounds as well, though not as severe as Reyes’s.

  Somehow we had to get past them and to our third-floor apartment.

  “This might sound really stupid, but what about—”

  “—the elevator,” they both said at the same time.

  Okay, so not that stupid.

  They were still on another plane. It wasn’t like they could cut the cable. I hoped.

  We made it to the elevator and piled inside, along with Mrs. Barros, an elderly woman who lived on the second floor and couldn’t see the demons surrounding her any more than she could see the gravity anchoring her to this world.

  But she could see Reyes. She gaped at him, not sure what to say.

  Reyes nodded a greeting. “Mrs. Barros.”

  “Reyes, sweetheart, is everything all right?”

  “Right as rain. How’s Daisy?”

  “Oh, she’s better. She has allergies, you know. I may need you to change the air filter in my apartment soon.”

  “I’ll get right on that.”

  The doors opened onto the second floor, and Mrs. Barros got off. Slowly. Oh so slowly. Before the doors could close, three Shade demons dived inside.

  Uncle Bob took one out instantly, but the others put up more of a fight.

  Two sentries appeared, holding one each while the Highlander eviscerated them. Not an easy
task in the limited space of an elevator.

  The door opened on the third floor to a completely empty corridor. We stood shocked at the silence that greeted us.

  “This isn’t right,” Reyes said, easing forward.

  Uncle Bob followed behind me, keeping a wary eye on every nook and every cranny. “I agree.”

  We got to our apartment, and I could tell we were on the right path.

  “I feel it,” I said to them.

  Reyes placed his hand on the door. “I do, too.”

  The energy source. The power center. It was close.

  As Reyes opened the door, I tried to ignore the blood trickling down his body and soaking the floor around him.

  An eerie silence wafted from the apartment. No sound whatsoever despite a blinding blue light flickering around us.

  Reyes started inside, then stopped, his expression hard as he scanned the area. I hurried forward, then gasped and stumbled back. The room was filled wall to wall with the infected. Every face twisted into rage. But they stood motionless, waiting for orders.

  How did we fight the demons inside without hurting the humans? Just dragging the one out of Eric almost killed him. There were over a hundred infected in our apartment, standing shoulder to shoulder, guarding the light.

  At the center, the light burned like an acetylene torch, so bright it hurt my eyes.

  But I’d been in the apartment after Reyes broke out of the Shade. “How did we not see this before?”

  “It’s using their life force to gain mass,” Uncle Bob said. “All of the infected. It’s using them. Siphoning their energy.”

  “Like Osh.” I pointed to them. To the light slowly leaking out of their bodies and into the core. “It’s feeding off their souls.”

  Reyes thought back. “That’s why when the woman died in the hospital, we never saw her soul leave her body.”

  “I remember. You’re saying the demon inside her had devoured it? Had stolen her energy?”

  “It’s the only explanation.”

  The longer we stood there, the more upset the infected became. Their heads were low, vicious scowls on their faces as though they were all being controlled by one powerful force.