A Grim Situation Read online

  I watched her muscular bottom disappear as she ascended, then looked away when she reached the landing and turned down the hall towards her bedroom. I thought she was just being unnecessarily bashful, but when she had mentioned her last relationship, her normally blue aura had suddenly swirled with reds, yellows, and greens. Her emotions had become so intense, they were visible to my Faerie sight without my urging. Complicated…and awfully interesting. I shrugged and decided that she’d talk about it when she felt the need. I could wait.

  Usually, I don’t need sleep. Every now and again, I’ll shut down for a few hours of true slumber, but that was only on occasion. I stretched, feeling the tension that remained in my back and chest from the night’s challenges, and thought it might be one of those occasions. We had a few hours before Edge would arrive to ferry us to New Mexico, so I wandered over to one of Ariana’s old, overstuffed chairs and sank into it. There was a lever on the side, which I pulled, and it leaned the whole chair back into a reclining position. As much as I hate to admit it, I loved that chair. I slept.

  Chapter 20

  Avery pressed her body up against the wall and slid as close to the corner as she dared. She held her gun at the ready, though she was reluctant to use it, knowing full well that even a single gunshot would bring Tanya’s security forces down on her in a swarm. She calmed her breathing and listened for the sounds of activity in the hallway beyond, but heard nothing.

  The building seemed new; the freshly-painted walls lacked even a hint of dust. The floors were polished wood, and she was thankful for the quiet rubber soles on her semi-fashionable shoes. Jim had always given her a hard time about them, but she’d had to run or fight far too many times to feel comfortable wearing fancier footwear, and they were proving their worth again.

  The walls were topped with elegant wooden molding that matched the floors, and the entire building smelled faintly of potpourri. Sconces in the walls held Native American pottery and other items that complemented the Southwestern theme throughout the house. Avery passed a few locked doors, as well as a plush theater room that boasted several leather reclining chairs and the biggest curved TV screen she had ever seen. She had been fortunate enough to find that door unlocked when some of Tanya’s security thugs approached, and she hid there until they passed. Now, she neared the end of a hallway that mirrored the one that had housed her cell. It had the same bare walls and unadorned but sturdy doors, and she had a strong feeling that her partner was near. If she’d learned anything during her time as a cop, she’d learned to trust her intuition, and recent events had only strengthened that trust. She checked to see that no one was in view, then she turned the corner.

  The feeling that Jim was close only intensified as she approached the door, and she carefully reached for the knob. A shock of static snapped at her fingers and she stifled a yelp, but then tried again only to find the door locked. Glad I grabbed those keys from that knucklehead back there, she thought, and she shifted her gun to her left hand so she could dig in her pocket for the keyring with her right.

  The air around her went cold. The temperature drop was sudden and intense, and she stopped moving as her senses went on high alert. There was no sound, but when she exhaled, she could see her breath as it steamed in the cold air. Alarmed, she put her back up against the wall next to the door and scanned the hall in either direction, but saw nothing. When nothing further occurred, she steeled herself against the feelings of dread that had arisen in her and went back to the door to unlock it.

  “Jim!” she whispered. “Hey, man, you in there? I’m here to get you out!” She opened the door as quietly as she could and eased her head inside. The room was furnished much as hers had been, and to her relief, Jim was seated at the end of the bed facing the room’s small window, one wrist handcuffed to the bedframe. He remained silent, his head down on his chest, as if dozing. Dammit, I bet they drugged him, she thought. She could only see his back, but he seemed to be uninjured, which was a relief considering what Tanya had implied. She sighed and slipped into the room, leaving the door open a crack behind her as she approached her old friend. “Jim! Hey, we’ve gotta go!”

  A sharp hissing sound made her flinch, which saved her life. Something whistled through the air less than an inch above her head as she ducked, and she instinctively tucked and rolled to get away from her unseen attacker. When she came up to one knee facing the doorway with her gun aimed, she froze in disbelief.

  The thing that faced her was straight out of a horror film, and if it meant to scare her, it was doing its job. It was only a bit taller than her, and wiry. Its ropy muscles bunched and moved, easily visible beneath its skin, which was a wet, mottled red and black. Its arms were longer than they needed to be, and where its left hand should have been, a long and jagged blade of bone protruded at least a foot beyond where its fingers would have reached. The other hand’s fingers were long and grasping, and also tipped with razor-sharp bone talons. Its face was dominated by a wide, lipless mouth that held far too many needle-like, bloody teeth. Its nose was no more than a pair of wet slits in its horrid face, and it had no eyes that Avery could see. Nevertheless, it faced her squarely, its attention fully on her as its head twitched sporadically. It hissed again, and then emitted a guttural chuckle that frightened her for a moment…then pissed her off quite thoroughly.

  “After the day I’ve had, you wanna go, ugly? Fine. Bring it. I’m gonna kick your scrawny ass up into your throat.” Mindful of the noise the gunshots would make, and the danger to Jim, she deliberately holstered her gun. She had to get her partner out before anyone caught them, and shooting the creature, however enticing the idea, would bring security running. Instead, Avery cracked her neck left, then right, then assumed a fighting stance with her hands open. “Let’s go, slimeball.”

  The creature hesitated as it sensed its prey’s emotions switch from fear to outright aggression. Its smile widened, then it lunged with its bone blade, intending to skewer the smaller woman and burst her heart.

  Avery parried the thrust with the palm of her right hand even as she turned her body sideways to avoid the attack, already moving forward to counter. Her left fist pistoned out and struck the oncoming demon directly in its wet nostrils, rocking its head back with a loud crack as bones broke. She slipped alongside the creature as it staggered, grabbed it behind its neck and shoulder, and slammed a brutal knee into its unprotected ribs, then another. It wheezed and buckled in surprise, and she hammered the bottom of her left fist into the back of its misshapen skull as hard as she could before shoving the thing away to fall in a tangle of bloody limbs on the floor.

  A human would have fallen unconscious from the rabbit punch alone. The thing on the floor, however, was not human. It shook its hideous head, then rose to its feet as it turned its never-ending grin back to her. It chuckled again.

  “Yessssss…” it rasped, “againnnn!” Avery’s eyes widened as the beast lashed out with its blade and caught her left arm, just above the elbow. She clutched it and took a step back in shock, grimacing as the pain hit her. The creature took a step forward, beckoning her to rejoin the fight.

  She stared at the demon for a beat, then said, “Oh, hell no.” She reached over to the bed and snatched up one of the big pillows that lay there. Lightly batting aside the creature’s bone blade, she covered the distance between them in an instant and jammed the pillow over the surprised creature’s face. She drew her gun with the smoothness of a thousand practice draws, pressed its barrel deep into the pillow’s muffling softness, and pulled the trigger. The demon’s head rocked back with a new bullet hole in the center of its wide forehead, and it fell to the floor in a twitching heap. “Cut my favorite shirt…what the hell is wrong with you? Asshole…” she mumbled, venting her anger even as she holstered her sidearm. Avery stepped on the creature’s right wrist with her left foot, then knelt across its bony torso, pinning its body to the floor with her right knee. She grabbed its blade and efficiently tucked the point up under its chin. With
a grunt, she shoved the point well up into its skull before it could regroup. Beneath the weight of her knee, the body of the demon convulsed, twitched, and fell completely limp. She held her position until she was confident the creature would not be getting up, then she sighed in relief.

  She stayed still, listening. The sound of the gunshot had been muffled well by the pillow, but if anyone was nearby, they’d have heard it, not to mention the sounds of the scuffle. When nothing materialized, she sighed again and rose to her feet to check on her partner. He had not moved during the fight, and still sat on the end of the bed with his eyes closed, silent and immobile.

  “Jim,” she said again as she sat beside him and laid a hand on his arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ve got to hurry before they catch us. Jim? Hey, are you all right?”

  Jim’s eyes snapped open and his head turned to Avery. A wide, maniacal grin slowly appeared on his face as Avery registered his bloodshot eyes. More importantly, Jim’s brown eyes were now urine yellow, their pupils little more than pinpoints in the center.

  “Jim’s not here right now, little girl,” a rasping caricature of Jim’s voice taunted her, “but I’m more than happy to play with you.”

  Frozen in shock, Avery heard the door burst open behind her, then strong hands grabbed her from behind. Jim cackled in a voice she’d never heard before, and as a fabric hood was slammed over her head, plunging her into darkness, she knew she was too late.

  Chapter 21

  The whirling blades beat the air into submission with every stroke as Edge guided the copter towards the sunset. The Goddess had painted the sky with great swaths of pink, purple, and grey, and even I thought it was beautiful work. Glancing away from the display, I let my eyes rove the land that flowed beneath us as we passed the Texas border and entered New Mexico territory. Cities were far apart out here, and if I opened myself to it, I could feel the power of the vast, open land all around me, uncluttered by the noise that accompanied so many people crushed together. It had a pure, clean feel to it, an ancient and untainted strength that could create incredible wonders, or unimaginable horrors, depending on the spirit of the being who tapped into it.

  “We should reach the coordinates you gave me within the hour,” Edge’s voice drawled over our headsets. Ariana smiled at his thick accent. Although born and raised in Texas, her own voice had only a faint twang, while Edge sounded like he’d walked out of a rodeo ten minutes ago.

  “Yeehaw, partner. We appreciate it,” she replied, exaggerating her own accent. Edge turned to look at her over his shoulder, mirrored sunglasses shining over an enormous grin.

  “Well, howdy, y’all know we aim to please, ma’am,” he replied, pleasure evident in his voice. He’d been all over the world, but his heart had always remained in Texas, it seemed. I liked few people, but I liked Edge. His firm adherence to a gentlemanly code of behavior sat well with my Fae side, and I had a strong sense that he would be capable in combat. Something about him bespoke a strength that ran deep, and I’d seen him handle a firearm. The man knew his business. He spoke again, “There’s an estate not far from where the tracking system last saw your phone. It stands to reason that’s where your creepies were headed.”

  “Agreed,” I replied over the intercom system. I never liked having the headphones on, but it did make communication easier. “Set us down close to the place, but not too much so. We stand a better chance of getting in unseen on foot if we’re not right on top of them.” I looked at Ariana and continued, “We don’t know what we’re walking into here. What little we know of Tanya’s powers is impressive. She’s already using some pretty tough demons to do her bidding. We’ll need to be careful.”

  Ariana patted the guns strapped firmly to her thighs and grinned. “You know I’m a careful sort, Kane. We’ll be quiet until it’s time to make some noise.”

  I nodded, then looked back out the window into the evening sky that was quickly growing darker. We had to take out Tanya. She was making trouble enough that I just couldn’t have her out there. If the cops were still alive, it would probably be a good thing to find them, too. In years past, I’d likely have given them up for dead already, but I had a strong feeling that helping them was the right thing to do, in spite of the fact that the woman’s bullets had damn near killed me. I sighed, vaguely disgusted with myself. Getting soft in my old age, I thought.

  Something rippled across my senses, at the same time Ariana spoke up. “Hey, what was that?” she asked, squinting at something over my left shoulder.

  I whirled towards the window, my Fae eyes narrowing in an attempt to see what she saw. There was nothing at first, but then, I spied a scarlet flicker in the distance, twin pinpoints of ugly crimson that snaked across the dark in a sinuous path. I saw another pair not far from the first. Those are eyes, I thought, but of what? Then recognition hit me.

  “Edge,” I said, “they’re coming in on your left. Two of them.”

  “Copy that,” Edge replied, and I saw him glance out the window, then do a double-take. “Y’all buckle up. It’s about to get busy up here.”

  Ariana checked her harness and asked, “What is it?”

  Something slammed into the side of the helicopter, rocking the entire vehicle and leaving a huge dent. Edge expertly compensated, and the engines ramped up as he began evasive maneuvers. We were thrown against our harnesses as the copter bucked and rolled.

  “Wyverns,” I replied.

  “Gotcha. Wait, what?” She was about to say more but another lurch made her grunt instead. I focused on staying in my seat, waiting to see what Edge would come up with. Moments later, the wall on Ariana’s side buckled inward as the force of another powerful blow rocked the copter. Six-inch talons pierced the metal in two groups of four as the creature outside latched on with powerful claws. I heard its reptilian hissing, even over the noise of the copter’s blades, and it dragged one set of claws downward, cutting through the metal and leaving deep furrows behind. Its barbed tail burst through the wall, then disappeared, leaving a hole the size of a cantaloupe behind. Edge jerked the copter left, then right, then dropped downwards fast enough that I saw Ariana’s face turn green. The thing outside shrieked again, retracted its claws and disappeared. The copter leveled out and began to rise.

  “Y’all all right back there?” Edge’s voice was tight, laced with concern.

  “Fine,” I quickly replied. “Is there anything you can do about those things?”

  Edge shook his head. Wyverns were similar to baby dragons, except they were a different breed altogether. They weighed about a ton and averaged fifteen to twenty feet long. Their brown, scaly hides resembled those of an alligator, but were much tougher. As a rule, they were quick, strong, and vicious. They weren’t nearly as smart and didn’t have the extra set of arms that true Dragonkind had. They lacked the intelligence to use magick, and couldn’t shapeshift either, which was a plus. Even so, they were cunning and dangerous, and would destroy the copter with us inside if they put their mind to it. I heard a loud screech from outside and realized that they probably planned to do just that.

  “What can you do?” I asked, hoping that Edge had something up his sleeve.

  As if in answer, he jerked the controls and the copter veered to the left, slamming me into the back of my seat while Ariana tested the strength of her harness opposite me. She grunted as the straps dug into her body. Edge climbed, then dove, then circled back to the right. Something slammed into us closer to the tail, and we spun crazily for a few moments, but Edge brought the copter back under control.

  “Not much,” he finally replied. “We don’t have enough firepower to be able to hit them in the air; they’re too damned nimble.”

  Another impact shook the copter as one of the Wyverns slammed into its underside. Its claws poked up through the floor and the entire vehicle shook as the beast howled its victory.

  I sighed, knowing what I was going to have to do. It pissed me off, having to deal with these things. I looked at Aria
na and said, “You have that ridiculously huge knife on you?”

  Although a look of confusion appeared briefly on her face, she responded immediately, “Duh, of course. Why?”

  I held out a hand, “May I?” She narrowed her eyes, but drew the knife, a razor-sharp kukri as long as my forearm. I’m still not sure where she’d been hiding it. She handed it to me without a word. I accepted it and pulled off my headset as I unbuckled my harness, then bolted to the door. Before she could protest, I flung the door open and heaved myself out into the howling void. Hey, it’s a living.

  I grabbed the bottom of the doorway with my left hand and swung myself feet first into the Wyvern attached to the bottom of our helicopter. As my feet hammered into its side, I felt bones snap beneath them, but it seemed to have plenty of ribs to spare. The creature howled in pain, but didn’t let go. Its wings were similar to the bat-like wings of gargoyles, but much larger. They flapped and slapped at me as it tried to retain its hold on the copter while I wrapped my arms around its body and dug the claws of my left hand into its side. Its reptilian head, eyes glowing red and sharp fangs filling a crocodile’s snout, regarded me with hatred and anger as I gripped its long torso with my legs just above its wings. As I raised the kukri to strike, the Wyvern released the copter and exploded into the air, taking me with it. I retained my grip, but just barely. The thing was powerful, and able to change direction almost instantly, which made it difficult to hang on. Its wings flapped in big, strong strokes as it slithered through the air, folding its two muscular legs up underneath itself, and it began a series of impressive aerial gymnastics in an attempt to throw me off. I gripped its serpentine body for all I was worth as I tried to bring the kukri to bear. I finally caught my balance just long enough to stab the Wyvern with the oversized blade. The creature bucked and thrashed, but there was no escape. I stabbed it a couple more times before I finally hit something important. The Wyvern went limp. There was a moment of weightlessness as it stopped flying and began to fall.