Kim Harrison - Something Deadly This Way Comes

Nakita nodded, her own smile eager as her hand gripped her amulet and her sword ghosted into existence in the other one. “With pleasure,” she said, striding away, sidestepping a fireman oblivious to everything but his job. The stink of ash rose up, and I squinted through it, glad I didn’t have to breathe.

I’d never seen so many black wings before, and the foul, mindless things swirled through the smoke to make it look like a living thing. Barnabas was still standing beside me like this was a lost cause. It would be only if we let it. “Will you go find Tammy!” I exclaimed, and he looked at me, a sick expression on his face.

“It’s too late,” he said, and my heart gave a thump. “Look.”

I followed his pointing arm to see Tammy standing at the top of one of the rows of the storage building, her mouth open and her dog in her arms, staring at the fire eating through the roof of her home. Demus was right behind her in the shadows, looking as if he was comparing her aura to something as his eyes went silver. In a blink between one flash of light and the next, his sword was made anew.

The memory of my heart pounded. “Demus!” I shouted, breaking into a run, dodging around crying people. “No!”

I could almost feel the whispers of feathers through my soul as I recalled being scythed, and the fear of waking up in the morgue with no way to change things, no way to hit the reset button and make a better choice. Tammy didn’t deserve that.

“Madison!” Barnabas shouted, but I dodged around an angry man arguing with a cop and kept going.

Demus raised his sword, planning on taking her from behind, oblivious to me barreling down on him. “Wait!” I shouted, but he was swinging, and I plowed into Tammy, sending us and her dog sprawling into the shadows between the storage buildings.

She shrieked, and her dog barked furiously, but no one outside the alley heard. Still on the ground, I looked up. Demus’s shock was turning into an ugly expression. His eyes dropped to my amulet, and he raised his sword again.

“You’ll have to do better than that, light reaper,” he said, mistaking me for an angel.

Well, that was one good thing, but then his arm descended in a smooth arc of motion. I pressed back into Tammy, wincing as I prepared to take the blow for her. I’d survive it. She wouldn’t.

But the pure ting of the divine shocked through me, seeming to cut through the noisy confusion for a brief instant. My eyes cracked open. It was Barnabas, his sword inches from me and holding back Demus’s blow.

“Barnabas?” the dark reaper stammered, still holding his position. “I thought you went grim.” “Grim” was what they called reapers who didn’t work for the light or the dark, mistrusted by both sides. They killed at random, or at least for a reason no one else could see.

With a grunt, Barnabas pushed him back. “I did.”

His voice was flat, and again, I was taken by his image standing protectively over me, his duster mixing with the smoke, and his eyes dark and intent. Avenging angel, beautiful and unshakable. Sarah, her name had been, I thought, wondering how she had instilled in him the best of all of us.

I fell backward as Tammy scrambled out from under me and deeper into the alley. Her dog was gone, running into the crowd with his tail tucked. “Tammy!” I exclaimed, spinning onto my stomach and snatching her ankle. She fell, shrieking again, but at least Demus’s blade went hissing harmlessly over her head as he swung at her. “Stay down!” I shouted at her, and this time she listened, eyes wide as she slid backward on her butt until she found a bright orange garage door.

“You talked to Shoe?” I asked. “You believe me now?”

Her eyes were fixed on Barnabas and Demus, and she jumped as their swords met and that sound rang out again. “You’re crazy!” she exclaimed. “Freaking crazy! What the hell is wrong with you people?!”

Demus kicked at Barnabas, sending him backward. Tammy gasped as Demus turned to her, smiling wickedly. The eagerness in his expression was a dire warning. This was who I was supposed to convince to spare a mark’s life? “And now you die!” he shouted, lunging.

“Demus, knock it off!” I exclaimed as I scrambled up.

I shot my hand out as he swung, his blade cutting right through me. Sparkles scintillated through me as heaven’s might mingled within, then ebbed to nothing as it recognized me as one of its own and threw the divine strike back. My head snapped up, and I took a breath, feeling it go all the way to the bottom of my lungs.

Demus yelped, and when I looked, he was wringing his hand, his sword at his feet as he blinked in shock. “Who, by Gabriel’s pearly toes, are you?”

“I’m your boss!” I said, still tingling from the blow, and ticked—even though it had felt good.

Demus bent to grasp his sword, and Barnabas shoved him. Arms and legs flailing, the dark reaper smacked ungracefully into the wall.

“Barnabas, don’t,” I said, but the reaper had yanked him up, dazed and confused as he put him in a choke hold and spun him to face me. Using his foot, Barnabas kicked Demus’s sword to me. I bent to pick it up, feeling the heavy weapon hum in my grip. It was responding to my amulet, I suppose.

“Your boss wants to talk to you,” Barnabas said, his eyes pinched in anger. “Or didn’t you get the memo?”

Demus focused on me, his snarl fading as his gaze flicked from the sword in my hand to Tammy crying behind me somewhere. “The dark timekeeper? Her?” His gaze dropped to my amulet, and then his eyes widened as he began to swear in Latin. At least I think it was Latin.

Looking vindicated, Barnabas let go of him, giving him a parting shove.

“You’re the new dark timekeeper?” Demus said, the lights from the emergency vehicles flashing on him. “You’re just a girl! Sweet seraph toes, no wonder the angels are still organizing the reaps.”

My brow furrowed, and I came forward a step. “It kind of surprised me, too,” I said, glad we were the same height and I didn’t have to look up at him. “Listen, carrottop,” I said as I handed his sword back to him, and Barnabas cringed. “I don’t care what the seraphs said. You are not killing Tammy. She’s off-limits. A test case, if you want.”

Behind me, Tammy’s sniffling stopped.

“But the seraphs . . .” Demus started, his glance going behind me to Tammy again. She shouldn’t be hearing this, but it could only help her understand.

“The seraphs aren’t playing fair,” I said. “I bet they didn’t even tell you what I’m trying to do, did they? This is my scythe, and they butted in by sending you, then Ron sent Arariel, is it? And now it’s all messed up. But since you’re here, you’re going to do what I say, and I say Tammy is going to wake up tomorrow! We’re trying to change her life, not end it.”

It had been a mouthful, and I dropped back a step to catch my breath. Well, I really didn’t need to, but still.

Demus was staring quizzically at me, then he glanced at Barnabas to see if I was joking. “You can’t change a mark’s path.”

Barnabas was shrugging, and I said, “Not when you just kill them, sure.”

Tammy started to edge for the opening of the alley. Barnabas moved to stop her, and she whimpered, standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

“We managed to change one person’s life,” Barnabas said. “We can do it again.”

Demus fidgeted, his bared sword pointing downward. “The seraphs said—”

“I say she’s off-limits!” I exclaimed. “Put your sword away and listen to me.”

“Hell and damnation,” Demus muttered, wincing as his sword vanished. “I can’t just let Ron put a guardian angel on her. Do you know what happens to people who die who have lost their souls and fail to regain them?”