Kim Harrison - Something Deadly This Way Comes

Nakita stiffened, her features lost in the dark as she crossed her arms over her middle. Nakita wasn’t grim, but I could see why he asked.

“You can’t find her because I changed Tammy’s resonance,” I said, my bare feet going damp in the grass as I came from around the stone and walked toward him. “And you are not going to kill Tammy. You, dark reaper, are going to help me find her, and then we are not going to scythe her. We are going to talk to her and show her a different choice so she stirs her soul back to life before it dies completely. That’s how we do things down here now. Barnabas saved someone ages ago. And we saved someone else just last month. It can be done.”

“Life is transitory. Souls are not to be risked,” he said, backing away.

“If her soul is to be lost, then we will save it, but not at the cost of her life!” I said, then lowered my voice before someone called the cops about voices in the graveyard. “I am the dark timekeeper,” I said, pushing forward until his back found a tombstone. “I survived my predecessor killing me. I survived black wings eating me alive. I am going to change things,” I said, my heart pounding. “And you are going to help me. Got it?”

He didn’t say yes. But he didn’t say no, either. “Who am I?” I insisted.

“You’re the dark timekeeper,” he muttered, his expression going from defiance to one of a sullen understanding. “Nakita, this is stupid. Haven’t you told her that you can’t change fate?”

“Of course I did.” Nakita, who had been doing handstands against a tombstone, walked on her palms toward us. Flipping right side up, she landed in a fighting pose. “And then she proved me wrong. We saved Ace.”

“Barnabas . . .” Demus almost whined.

The angel smiled with half his mouth, still leaning on his sword. “Just go with it,” he advised. “But if you try to scythe Tammy, I will stop you.”

Demus crossed his arms over his chest, defiant, but understanding. “Why not just let Ron put a flipping guardian angel on her and be done with it?” he said belligerently. “If you want to save someone’s life, that’s how you do it.”

“Because we’re not just trying to save her life, we’re trying to save her soul and her life,” I said, not knowing how to explain it to him. It was about free will and choice, and angels just didn’t get it. Like Barnabas had said, heaven was black and white, but the earth was colorful.

Slumping to the ground, Demus sat cross-legged. “Sweet seraph toes, I don’t get it.”

His head shaking at the angel’s confusion, Josh gingerly sat on a broken stone. “Intense, and a little dense, too,” he whispered to me, and I smiled.

Barnabas put his sword away, clearly relaxing as Demus backed off. “So how do we talk to her?” he asked, then added, “Without her calling the cops on you. I mean, she does think you started the fire, right? Do you want me to wipe her memory?”

“No,” I said quickly, head down as I began to pace in the wet grass. “That’s why marks don’t change. You take their memories, and they have nothing to make a change with.” I came to a halt and pulled my head up. “Everyone leaves Tammy’s memories alone. Got it?”

Demus groaned, rocking back as he sat there cross-legged. “This is the weirdest scything I’ve ever been on.”

I couldn’t help my smile. “That’s because it’s not a scything, it’s a rescue.”

His head thrown back to the stars, Demus moaned, “This isn’t going to work.”

My stomach growled, and I turned to the empty street. “I’m sure Tammy would appreciate us trying.” And he was wrong. It would work. It had to.

“Never going to wo-o-o-ork,” Demus sang, and Nakita threw a rock at him.

“Shut up!” she exclaimed as Demus ducked and the rock shattered into fragments on the stone behind him. “She’s the dark timekeeper and you’re going to listen!”

“It’s okay, Nakita,” I said as I felt the sudden adrenaline rush banish my tiredness. “He sounds like you used to. He’ll learn.”

Barnabas ran a hand through his curls, his eyes on my bare toes. “There’s only one problem,” he said, giving Nakita a worried glance.

“And that would be . . . ?” I prompted, thinking it likely wasn’t my lack of shoes.

“Your amulet,” he said, his gaze flicking to it and back to me. “I don’t think it’s working.”

“What do you mean?” I said, grasping it like it might vanish.

Barnabas shrugged. “What I mean is that Grace has been talking to you for the last five minutes, and you haven’t heard a word she’s said.”

“No!” I exclaimed, my grip on my amulet becoming tighter as Josh straightened, concern pinching his brow. “I could hear her before!” Barely, though, and I hadn’t seen her at all. “And I can see the time lines!” I added, bringing them up in my thoughts.

But panic iced through me, and I stared at Barnabas. All I could see in my mindscape was a hazy glow, like the imprint a bright light might leave on your retina. “It’s almost not there!” I yelped. “They cut me off. The seraphs cut me off. No wonder I couldn’t reach either of you earlier. Try to talk to me, Barnabas. Talk to me!”

Barnabas gave me a pained look. “I’ve tried. Been trying. Madison, I don’t think you’ve been cut off.”

“Then my aura has shifted.” I was babbling, but I couldn’t help it. Josh had risen, but I was frantic, and I wouldn’t let him touch me when he tried to put a hand on my shoulder.

“We can see that, and compensate,” Nakita said. She was standing next to Barnabas. I think it was the first time they had ever made a united front.

Demus flopped back against the grass and stared up at the stars, completely uncaring. “Like a light reaper can hear a dark timekeeper,” he scoffed.

“They can,” Josh said belligerently.

“And I’m not light,” Barnabas added, his angry tone shocking me out of my own fear. I stared at him, and his gaze dropped as if he was ashamed. “Not anymore.”

My lips parted, making my fear hesitate. He had admitted it. Barnabas had let go of the last of himself. His eyes were on my amulet, and I took my hands off it, letting it dangle freely. “If they haven’t cut me off, then I broke it when I took my body,” I said. “Damn it, how long do you think before it fixes itself?”

Nakita was waving her hand in front of her face, backing up. “I will!” she was saying to Grace, probably, since I didn’t think Nakita was psychotic. “Just shut up a moment, okay?” Exhaling, she turned to me. “Grace says that your amulet is fine.”

I looked at Josh, almost wishing I’d never taken my body back, and he dropped his eyes. It wasn’t his fault. I made the choice. “Then they cut me off—” I started.

“No,” Nakita insisted. “Madison, will you just listen? They didn’t cut you off, and you didn’t break it by claiming your body. But you’re alive now, and that’s a problem.”

My swirling thoughts slowed. “Why is that a problem?” I asked.

Barnabas, though, was nodding his head. “Remember when you first flashed forward into Ace’s future and it was too much for you?” he said, and I took Josh’s hand, giving it a quick squeeze at the memory of stars so beautiful they almost broke me. “You were dead,” he said. “Halfway to the divine. Ron had to adjust your amulet for you? It’s still toned down, and now that you’re alive, you’re not making a strong enough connection.”

“Oh, ma-a-a-an,” I groaned, dropping back to slump against a tall tombstone. Muffled. Everything was muffled. “You think?” I asked, my voice quavering. If that was all it was, it could be fixed. Not by me, though. Ron had fixed it the last time.