Kim Harrison - Something Deadly This Way Comes

Josh’s shoulders eased, and he actually smiled, even when Paul came to stand at my other side. The two guys warily greeted each other as Nakita leaned against a stone and pulled her long stockings off.

“This is wrong!” Demus was shouting, and I looked at the dark street that suddenly seemed too close. “The seraphs need to know what you’re doing! That grub is going to tell Ron. He’s going to put a guardian angel on her!”

I had broken curfew too many times and gotten away with it to be cowed by what a seraph might think about me hanging out with my future adversary. They were the ones who picked me. If they couldn’t handle my rebellious tendencies, then they should have picked someone else. Still . . . I watched the sky. Demus couldn’t do much without his amulet, but there was no need to advertise.

“Here,” Nakita said as she handed Barnabas her white stockings. Barnabas tossed me the reaper’s amulet, and I caught it, feeling the violet stone warm in my grip as both Paul and I looked down at it. I hadn’t made it, but the amulet around my neck had been used in its construction, and it was as if the two stones were greeting each other.

“Get off!” Demus huffed as Barnabas yanked his arms back and tied his wrists. “Nakita,” he pleaded when Barnabas finished and got off him. “He’s going to put a guardian angel on her. Nakita, stop this! You’re traitors! Traitors!” he shouted.

Feet spread wide, Nakita stood over him as Barnabas yanked him into a seated position. “I told you to be quiet,” she said, bending provocatively to shove her last wadded-up stocking into his mouth. “And I’m not a traitor,” she added, looking unsure as she stepped back.

Paul gave me a look like he wanted to laugh but was afraid to. “Having problems with your reapers?”

My heart was pounding. Demus’s face was as red as his hair. “He’s new to my methods,” I said with a false lightness, then turned away as if it didn’t bother me. But it did.

Paul grinned, reaching out a finger to poke my shoulder. “You’re alive now?”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah, so no scything me, okay?”

He laughed, pantomiming cutting through me with a blade, remembering our first meeting when he’d tried to kill me. I had been evil incarnate, according to him. Now I was hoping he saw us as colleagues . . . sort of. Glancing at Demus, Paul said, “I don’t know exactly what you want me to do here.”

Excitement tingled to my toes. “Your amulet is strong enough to see the time lines, right?” I asked. “I mean, Ron didn’t give you an amulet that couldn’t, yes?”

Paul looked down at his green stone. “I can see them, sure. But that doesn’t help you much. I don’t have the slightest idea where to look.”

Barnabas gave Demus a nudge to be quiet. “What have you been doing the last three months?”

“Not this,” was Paul’s quick, defensive answer, and Josh snorted.

“If you can bring the time lines up,” I said, “I can see them through your thoughts. I’ll show you her resonance, like I would a reaper.”

Paul’s eyes were wide. “You can do that? Show someone else what you’re looking at?”

“It’s how a timekeeper shows a reaper what soul to take,” I said, realizing that Ron hadn’t told him that much. Sure, Paul could jump across space and make a sword from the divine, but he didn’t know the first thing about his job . What was Ron waiting for?

“Like I said,” Barnabas muttered as he leaned toward me, “what have you been doing the last three months?”

I glared at Barnabas to be quiet. We needed Paul’s help. “You want to try it?” I asked Paul. If he didn’t, we were screwed.

Paul glanced at Josh, then me. “You, uh, won’t be able to read my thoughts, will you?” he asked.

I looked at Nakita and Barnabas, not sure myself, and they shrugged. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “I don’t know. Paul, you’re going to have to do this eventually,” I cajoled, and his eyes grew determined.

“Okay,” he said, sitting down on one of the stones.

Nakita made a tiny huff. Arms over her chest, she leaned toward Barnabas. “Why is it they both have to sit down to do stuff?”

Nervous, I sat across from Paul, feeling the damp go right through my thin clothes. I took three breaths, trying to center myself as Barnabas had taught me. It was a lot harder now that I was alive. I guessed that taking Paul’s hand might improve the chances we could pull this off, but Josh was scowling again, and I didn’t.

“Okay, I found it,” Paul said, his expression calm as he looked at his inner mindscape. “I found you.” His one eye cracked open as he compared my real aura with the one on the time line. “Found them,” he added, meaning the reapers, I guessed as he glanced at them. Then he cringed. “Madison, I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

“Hold on,” I said. Closing my eyes, I brought up my mindscape. As I feared, there wasn’t much to look at, just that blurry haze of nothing.

“Try touching him,” Nakita said dryly, and Josh exhaled loudly.

“Okay,” I said, then reached for him.

“Hey!” he yelped.

I got a flash of bright light, and then it was gone. My eyes flew open, and I stared at Paul. He looked scared, his eyes wide in the dim light of the distant streetlamp. My heart pounded, and I realized my hand was fisted in my lap. “Are you okay?” I asked him as Barnabas grumbled.

“Yeah,” he said, clearly flustered. “It just surprised me. Let’s try again.”

Demus made some muffled comment that we all ignored, and Paul reached for my fingers. Nervous, I took his hand. It was smooth in mine, and a little sweaty. Or maybe the sweat was from me.

Nakita snorted, and I gave her a dark look before closing my eyes. Immediately I was struck by how fuzzy everything still was. It was like going from high-def to normal TV. Or maybe taking your glasses off. The exquisite definition of everyone’s life lines was muted and blurry. It was still easy to tell, though, where Paul and I were. Nakita, Barnabas, and Demus were even easier to find, their glows twining around us almost protectively.

Here, I thought, not knowing if Paul could hear me, and I drifted my awareness down into the time lines until I found Tammy, not too far away, still alone, very alone, her new aura with the black-rimmed, orange center shining dully. Paul’s bright glow was beside mine, and the reapers’ auras, too. All we had to do now was find her in reality.

We can do this, I thought with a resurgence of hope. My fingers tightened in Paul’s grip, and he squeezed back. But before I could even relax my hold and break our connection, the entire line flashed blue.

Holy crap! I thought, my grip tightening spasmodically. It’s a flash forward!

In an instant, Paul and I were alone. The reapers were gone. I could feel Paul’s confusion, then fear as he realized something was wrong. His fingers loosened in mine, and I gripped them tighter, frantically trying to keep him with me. If he let go, we’d lose it.

It’s a flash forward! I thought, trying to maintain my grip on his fingers and my sight on the line. I can’t see if you leave!

I had probably been trying to flash forward all night, but my connection had been too weak. Now, with Paul, it was enough. I was desperate to see Tammy’s future, and it was with a huge sigh of relief that I felt Paul’s confusion turn to excitement. His fingers in mine wiggled, and around us, the line became a darker blue, almost black. With a curious flipping sensation, we were out of the present, and in . . .

Tammy, I thought, familiar with the sensation of being in someone else’s mind, a silent observer as a myriad of moments flitted through someone else’s consciousness. At least this time she wasn’t in a burning apartment.