Kelly Gay - The Better Part of Darkness

Confusion creased her brow. “What?”

“The second debt. He tried to kill my husband and my daughter is missing.” I pressed the nozzle deep into her neck. “She’s eleven years old .”

A profound weight settled on my shoulders. I couldn’t keep the tears from rising to my eyes, but I did keep them from spilling over. Music drifted into the alley. The band, tuning their instruments in spurts of funky guitar strokes and sudden drumbeats, accentuated the fact that this entire day had been an insane combination of disbelief, heartbreak, discovery, and loss on a monumental scale. I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Sian’s hand came up slowly and pulled the hood off her head.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” she said in a tone saturated with horror and condolence.

“Right.” I waved the gun in front of her nose. “So, what, you just decided to come topside to show me your new toy?”

She swallowed and averted her gaze. “Well, no, I didn’t know what exactly I was going to do, but … despite what my father wants, I can’t work topside. And the only way I could think was to get rid of you or make you bargain with me,” she said lamely.

“Holy shit. You’re a hybrid,” Rex said in awe as it dawned on him.

She blinked back instant tears. “You see? You see why I can’t go out in public? I can’t do it.” Her anxiety and vulnerable state emanated blackness into her purple-and-blue aura.

Her entire demeanor was so different than when I’d first seen her, and she must have seen the thought pass across my face because she said, “I try to be strong in the den, to show my father I am like a jinn … But even there they hate me. So I have to be like stone, like nothing matters.”

“Did you know your father is working with Mynogan?”

“Yes. My father struck a bargain to make the ash . They bring us the Bleeding Souls and we extract the milk and then send it to a lab where it’s made into powder. Father calls their bargain Step Two.”

“Any idea where the flowers are grown or where this lab is? Or where they’d take a child?”

“None. I’m sorry. The lab is run by Cassius Mott, though, if that helps. I don’t know where it is except that it’s in or around Atlanta somewhere.”

Three steps. Mynogan grew the flowers, Grigori extracted them, and Cass turned them street-friendly. But what the hell Mynogan needed me for was still a mystery.

“Next time you decide to go confront somebody,” I said, lifting the gun in front of her face, “you might want to turn off the safety.” I shoved her gun into the back of my jeans and turned to leave.

“But what about the job? I just told you things my father would kill me for! You’re supposed to help me now! I can’t—”

I paused and looked over my shoulder. “Yeah, well, you won’t have to worry about it much longer because Daddy will be dead or in jail.” I resumed walking. “Preferably dead.”

As I passed Rex, I grabbed his bicep to usher him out of the alley. He walked backwards three steps, lifted one hand to his ear, and mouthed the words call me to Sian.

Completely ignoring him, I scanned the open area at the head of the alley. The charm wouldn’t cover Rex, but I was hoping the black mages wouldn’t be on the lookout for Will. The undercover officer had seen Will now a few times, so he shouldn’t give him any trouble at Bryn’s door.

I had to grab Rex’s hand and drag him behind me. He was like a child and easily distracted by the sights and sounds of Underground. It made me wonder how long it had been since he’d found himself in a young body.

Bryn let us in on the first press of the buzzer.

My pulse pounded hard, but not from my run up the stairs. Hank was back, and I prayed it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded over the phone. Rex followed at a leisurely pace, trailing his hand along the wall as he progressed.

Inside, my heart nearly dropped to the floor when I saw Hank lying on the couch, and a tearstained Bryn kneeling at the coffee table, hands shaking as she lit incense and mixed a healing drink of herbs, blessing it under her breath.

I went down on my knees, afraid to touch him. His big body spilled over the cushions, one hand dangling to the floor. Dried blood matted his blond hair. Bruises covered his knuckles and face. My lion had fallen. I bit my lip hard, until the skin popped and a warm drop of blood hit my tongue.

Bryn gasped suddenly and bumped into me in her haste to scramble away, her back hitting the love seat. Over my shoulder I saw Will’s rugged form filling the doorway. Bryn’s wide brown eyes were fixed on him. Then she glanced at me, the gold and copper flecks bright with fear. She swallowed. “That’s not Will.”

“I know. That’s Rex. He stole Will’s body.”

Rex slung me an exasperated glower. “Not stole .” He stepped into the room, scanning every detail. I knew he was experiencing Will’s memories of this place, but as Rex, he was seeing it for the first time. As if on an afterthought, he turned back to Bryn, studying her just as intently as he had the surroundings. “William bargained to win back Little Miss Sunshine here. Don’t ask me why.”

“Go to hell,” I responded with the most withering glare I could muster.

Bryn’s face paled. Her hand fluttered to her neck as tears filled her eyes and fell over the rims. Her voice was barely a whisper as the cruel understanding dawned on her. “Emma.”

I didn’t have to answer. She understood. The tears trailed silently down her cheeks. Her chest rose and fell as though she had trouble breathing. She put her head in her hands and doubled over, rocking and mumbling the words, “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God …”

Watching her fall apart was cracking my own self-control, and I couldn’t lose it, not now, not when Emma needed me the most. I went to reach for Bryn to shake her out of her shock and grief, but right before I touched her, she lifted her head, sat straighter, and sniffed. The grim copper gleam that came into her eyes startled even me. “I need to make a call.” She staggered to her feet and went into the kitchen.

Gently, I touched Hank’s shoulder. “Hank? Can you hear me?” He shrank away. Swollen eyelids slit open. He turned away from me. “Hank?”

“Leave me alone, Charlie,” he rasped out, his voice barely a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear true pain, and what sounded like blame.

“Hank. I didn’t leave you alone. Carreg was there to help. I had to get back to Em. You heard what Mynogan said.”

“Yeah, Carreg the Almighty wasn’t quick enough to stop this.” He lifted his neck. Both ends of his voice modifier had been fused together. Despair lodged in his throat. “It won’t come off.” And I knew what that meant. His greatest asset, his greatest power, was gone.

Stunned, I dropped back, my rear end landing on the carpet and my stomach folding into tight knots. The utter desolation in Hank’s eyes left me cold and despondent. And when he turned his back on me, I felt a keen sense of loss. I went to pull him over, to try and explain, but his eyes were closed and his breathing slower. He’d passed out.

Bryn came back into the room. Determination seeped from every pore. Still in shock, I stood, not knowing what to do next.

A knock sounded at the door, but the buzzer hadn’t gone off. I grabbed my gun, flicked the safety, and trained it on the door, but Bryn came up beside me, one hand on my shoulder and the other stilling my hand. “Reinforcements,” she said. “He won’t appear inside, but the landing I’ve allowed.”

With a deep, fortifying breath, she walked to the door and opened it. A tall male dressed in black leather pants and a dark green silk tunic that fell to mid-thigh stepped inside at her invitation.