Kelly Gay - The Better Part of Darkness

Adrenaline pumping through me, I moved forward and grabbed him, shoving him face-first onto the desk, his arms over his head, hands still linked, and his bald ass pointing skyward. I stood at his hip and grabbed his neck, holding him down as hard as I could and fighting myself to remain in control. “Tell me!” I shouted. “Tell me where she is right now, or I finish the job!”

“I don’t know!” He sobbed and blubbered against the desk. “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

“Charlie, I think he’s telling the truth,” Will’s voice reached beyond the firestorm in my head. No. That wasn’t Will. It was the swindling, hustler body thief. Rex.

“Shut up,” I snarled, blinking tears back because I knew he was right. Otorius didn’t know where my daughter was.

“Where’s the ash lab?” I asked instead.

“I don’t know, I swear. I only know that the Sangurne N’ashu needs heat and moisture to grow. A hothouse maybe. It takes seven years for one flower to bloom, so it’d have to be an established place. That’s all I know.” I eased my grip on his neck. “You can’t stop him, Charlie. You’re in way over your head, and he’s waited too long for this.”

“For what?” I squeezed harder and he laughed.

“He’d hurt me far worse than you ever could.”

Otorius’s hands finally unlocked, but one was so burnt with frostbite, it had turned completely black. The other hand, which had been under the first, came out in much better shape.

He’d lose the hand.

But it was no more than he deserved. I hauled him off the desk and shoved him at Rex, whose look of horror at seeing a semi-naked male bearing down upon him was actually pretty damn amusing. He caught Otorius, holding the Abaddon representative at arm’s length and shooting me an incredulous scowl. “What the hell do you want me to do with him?”

I sat on the edge of the desk, tired. “I don’t care. Tie him up and put him in the closet with what’s-her-face.”

“Her name is Darlene, and she’s from Michigan,” Rex said frankly. “What about his pants? I’m not pulling them up and he can’t do it with his hands.”

“Then leave them,” I shot back. “Just get him out of my sight.”

Rex rolled his eyes at me and then slowly led Otorius from the room. I’d just made one hell of an enemy, I thought, looking after them.

Emma. Where are you?

The fist squeezing my heart was so great, I set the gun on the desk and then sank down to the floor, hugging my knees and gasping for breath at the same moment tears flooded down my face. I couldn’t control it any longer.

I’d lost her. My little girl.

My hands delved into my hair and I squeezed hard, pulling on the roots as I rocked back and forth. Pressure and heat built in my face and chest. I screamed, a frustrated sound torn from my very soul. My body shuddered as my wail turned to racking sobs.

A body sat down beside me and pulled me into his arms. I knew it wasn’t Will, but it smelled like him and felt like him and spoke soothing words like him. I held on tight, releasing the tears into his shirt, my head tucked under his chin as his hand rubbed my back. “We lost our girl,” I sobbed against him. “We lost our baby.”

“Shhh.” He soothed my hair in long strokes. After a long moment, he said, “I’ve never met a more determined mother than you, Charlie. You’ll find a way. Don’t lose faith now.”

His softly spoken words broke through the grief.

Drawing in a deep breath, I raised my head and looked into the eyes of the man I’d loved for so long, wishing he was there. “I thought you guys were all … bad.”

Rex’s smile was awkward, but flattered. “Common misconception. Not all demon spirits are bad. The Wraiths, running around and possessing humans against their will, making their heads spin around and launch nuclear barf from twelve feet out, kind of gave us all a bad name.” I laughed. “Mostly, we just want to experience life, physical life, that’s all. The last body I was in was an old fart who’d had a heart attack in his forties. I made him the sensation of The Wolf’s Lair Dinner Theater. Starring role six seasons straight. You might have heard of me. James Eblehard.”

I shook my head.

“Yeah, well, I could have made him the greatest actor the world has ever seen, but all he wanted was dinner theater stardom.” He sighed deeply. “It was an utter waste of my talent. Anyway, he told his wife I’d take over when his time came. She asked me to stay and I did. We Revenants care, no matter what you might have heard otherwise.” And then he fixed me with a glare. “But if you tell anybody about this, I’ll have to cut out your tongue.”

I sniffed and eased back. “And if you tell anybody I lost it, I’ll cut off your—”

His hand shot up. “No need to paint a picture! I get it.”

Surprised I was able to smile and actually mean it, I stood, grabbing my gun from the desk and sliding it into the holster.

Rex and I left the second floor to the sounds of banging and muffled shouts for help. “God help the poor soul who finds Otorius,” Rex muttered.

“So where to now?” Rex asked when we got into the car.

“You’re cooperating pretty well.” I glanced over, finding it odd, despite what he’d told me in Otorius’s office.

“I told you, I’m a decent guy. I do every possession by the book. Contract says I got to tie up loose ends, then that’s what I’ll do. Besides, I haven’t had this much excitement in eons. Except” —a pointed finger shot up—“when I met Shakespeare in Bankside.” He sighed. “The Globe … now that was theater.”

I started the car and slipped it in first. “We’re going to my sister’s.”

Rex pulled down the visor mirror and inspected his face. “How do I look?” He adjusted the bloodstained shirt, frowning at the big splotches of dark red and the huge area of wetness from my tears. Talk about self-involved. I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know my face was still puffy and splotchy from crying and my hair was sticking out at all angles.

“My sister doesn’t go for your type, trust me.”

He huffed at me. “No need to crush a man’s ego.”

“You’re not a man,” I reminded him. “You’re a parasite who swindled my husband.”

“Oh, look at you now, calling him your husband . He wouldn’t have needed me if you had been open to calling him that before.”

Ouch. “Shut the hell up.”

My cell rang. It was Bryn. “Yeah,” I answered, giving an evil look to Rex.

“Charlie,” she said breathlessly. I stiffened; the panic in her voice was all too clear. “Hank is here.” Her voice choked on tears. “You need to come back.”

“Already on my way.” Hanging up, I cursed under my breath. “Fuck.” What else could go wrong? I tapped the steering wheel, thinking, as I dropped the gear in third and passed a dump truck. “Can you heal others?” I asked Rex.

“Just my host body.”

“Figures.”

Once we parked, I fished in my pocket for Bryn’s cloaking charm, intending to use it at the entrance to Mercy Street. The last thing I needed was to deal with the black mages or any other renegade waiting to ambush me.

Underground was still lit up. People milled about, watching workers set up for a block concert. I pulled Rex closer to the storefronts and rounded the corner to Mercy Street.

“Hold it right there.”

We stopped dead in our tracks, running straight into the barrel of a 9mm as a figure in a black cloak and hood stepped from behind a large potted fern.

Violet and indigo eyes glowed from the darkness inside of the hood. Sian.

Without thinking, I twisted the gun from her hand. “You fucking bitch!” A stunned expression paled her smooth gray skin as I shoved her back into the alley and slammed her against the rough brick wall with one hand braced flat against the middle of her chest and the other holding her own gun to her throat. “Maybe I should just kill you and see how Daddy likes the feeling.”