Graveyard Shift (11 page)

“Thank you.” I stepped aside, an obvious gesture for him to have at it. He frowned back at Josie and gave me a nod before hurrying off to find his dingy partner.

“Who does she think she is? She has no right mes
sing with our soul,” Josie whispered as soon as Horus was out of sight.

“I think she just wanted an aut
ograph.”

“I can’t believe Horus did such a shoddy job going over the rules with her.” Josie shook her head.

I shrugged and then frowned at the horizon. A tiny black ship loomed in the distance, and I had a pretty good idea who it belonged to.

Chapter 13

“Must not all things at the last

be swallowed up in death?”

-Plato

Josie and I had fended off Caim on our own before, but this time it wasn’t going to be so easy. It was a wonder his ship was still afloat with all the demons on board. He was definitely working with more than two legions this time, but we were working with two more reapers and two Egyptian deities.

Wosyet clutched Horus’s arm. “Why don’t we just take the soul the rest of the way with a coin?”

Okay, scratch that, one Egyptian deity.

“Didn’t you teach her anything before letting her tag along?” Josie glared at the goddess. Wosyet ignored her.

“Coins are inactive over the Sea of Eternity,” Horus quickly explained. “If they weren’t, anyone could just sneak onto a ship and steal a soul. It’s in the treaty. I thought you already knew that.” He shook his head, finally realizing what a mistake bringing her had been. Her worried expression proved she thought it was a mistake now too.

“Why don’t you go wait in our cabin,” I offered.

Josie’s jaw tightened, but I wasn’t about to invite her to harass our soul again. Wosyet nodded anxiously and hurried away. Halfway to our cabin she turned around.

“Aren’t you coming, Horus?”

“No, I’m going to help.”

“Suit yourself,” she mumbled before stomping off to our cabin.

Josie strung three arrows in her bow. Caim’s ship was still a good distance away, but I remembered how fast his demons had crossed the sea before. We needed a game plan and fast.

Coreen rounded the sailor’s cabin with Kevin. The
crinkled skin around her eyes told me they had seen Caim’s ship as well. “Horus, you can fight long range, right?” she asked.

“Of course.” The makeup around his scarred eye faded away as his pupil was consumed by a golden light. He lifted his gaze to the sky.

A falcon cried out. The bird was an unnatural size, almost a third as large as our ship, with feathers the size of palm tree leaves. He jerked his head to one side, and I could see my reflection in his bowling ball of an eye. I gripped the railing behind me, hoping I didn’t resemble any creatures he had been snacking on lately.

“Lana, Kevin,
and I will watch the deck.” Coreen stripped off her robe. “Josie and Horus, stand behind us so you can focus on attacking his ship. The more damage he receives, the sooner he’ll retreat.” She picked through a handful of what looked like coins.

“I thought those didn’t work out here. What are you doing?” I moved up beside her.

“These aren’t coins.” She grinned. “They’re concentrated mirrors, designed to stun demons. Shield your eyes. I’m going to toss them overboard so our guests are partially blind before they arrive.”

I threw my hand over my face just in time. When I looked again, a fierce glow peaked out from under the rai
ling. Caim was close enough now that I could see his shock. It must have looked as though our ship was on fire.

“Let’s do this!” Coreen shouted.

I decided her determination and courage had earned her another shred of my respect as I faced Caim’s ship.

It was like a Carnival cruise for demons. A few dog-faces glowered from the deck, but they were the least of my worries. Dozens of webbed wings flapped in the breeze, ca
rrying the crumpled bodies of skeletal cats the size of horses. My knees were trembling, and the creatures hadn’t even crossed half the distance yet.

Josie’s lips curled back to expose her
clenched teeth. The muscles in her back flexed under the strain of the three arrows she aimed overhead. A pained sigh escaped her as she released them.

Caim’s shrieks echoed over the sea. Two of the a
rrows were lodged in his left wing, but the third had pierced his shoulder. Another wave of demons spilled from his ship and rushed towards us.

My knees began to tremble as the first wave neared. We were so outnu
mbered. Horus’s falcon swooped down and caught four of the hellcats in his beak. The giant bird petrified me, but at least he was on our side. That was the only thing keeping my hopes from plummeting into oblivion.

Josie pulled two more arrows from her quiver. She had stripped down t
o a green tank top and jeans. Sweat glistened on her forehead and shoulders.

Horus peeled off his pants and let them fall to the deck floor. A small, leather loin cloth kept him from being entirely exposed, but just barely. Strips of leather crisscrossed over his thighs, holding a pair of rustic da
ggers. He took them and widened his stance, preparing for the army of demons.

“Stay back! Let the mirrors do their part first!” Coreen screamed at Kevin as he inched towards the railing. What the hell was wrong with him? Was he blind? He hesitated, but then obeyed Coreen and took a few steps back.

Horus moved up beside me, leaving Josie in the middle as she frantically loosed arrows, two at a time, over the sea. A band of demons had formed a wall around Caim, but they were slowly shying away under Josie’s fire.

Horus’s falcon dipped one more time to thin out the first wave, and then the demons were on us.

The terror of the first hellcat crashing onto our deck was only mildly reduced by its lack of grace. Coreen had been wise to use the reflecting mirrors. The beast’s eyes glazed over as it thrashed about. Kevin ran forward first, lashing out with his scythe. His actions were anxious, although his face held an eerie calm as he sliced off the creature’s front limbs.

Its a
gonizing shrieks vibrated through my skull, threatening to shatter my will. My own cries were a foreign sound as the trembling in my knees faded and I bolted ahead, throwing my scythe with all my strength to tear the beast’s head off. I would kill a thousand hellcats as long as I never had to hear that sound again.

Blood, thick as tar, ran from the creature’s neck, oo
zing over the deck and between the boards. I cringed, thinking of how long it was going to take to clean and repair the ship later.

“Incoming!” Coreen howled over the roar of wings as more hellcats arrived.

Horus’s falcon dove down and plucked up two of them in his beak, snapping them into pieces small enough to swallow. The massacre sprayed us with a scarlet rain. The next cat to arrive slipped in the blood of its fallen comrades and slid dangerously close to Josie. 

Horus leapt onto the creature
’s back and shoved a dagger in its eye. Blood oozed out around his hand and sprayed across his face. The beast’s cries roared out, deafening as the last had been, before Horus jerked the blade back and split the cat’s skull in half, spilling steaming brains over the deck floor.

Josie’s eyes watered, but she co
ntinued firing at Caim. His protective circle of demons lay in heaps around him, riddled with arrows. Her backup quiver was almost empty, and the lines around her eyes grew deeper with each shot she fired.

Another hellcat clawed its way on deck, snapping off a chunk of railing as it climbed onboard. It snarled and flung the splintered railing
my way. I dodged, landing in a puddle of demon goo. Another pair of leather pants, ruined. The boat shifted, and my knees gave out just in time. The hellcat leapt over me, its talons inches from my face, that was now splattered with scalding blood.

The cat rolled into the railing on the other side of the deck, uprooting half the hand-carved spindles, then turned and prepared to rush me again. My scythe was slippery with blood, and my head
was spinning in so many circles I could hardly remember how to use the weapon in the first place.

The beast hissed, pulling back the veiny skin around its mouth to show me the rotting arsenal of teeth waiting i
nside. It lowered its head and charged. Adrenaline ignited in my blood, sending an electrical pulse that ripped through my body and left my fingertips numb and aching. I swung my scythe wildly and closed my eyes, trying to conjure up a picture of Gabriel or Saul or even Maalik. If I was going to die, the last image in my mind was not going to be of some mangy hellcat.

My wrists jerked, and a strangled gurgle hissed past my cheek, c
arrying the nauseating aroma of sewage. I cracked my eyes open. The blade had pressed through the monster’s throat and connected with its spine. Its eyes went empty as it fell into my lap and bled out over the deck.

Everything ached and burned. I hardly realized I was holding my breath until my vision began to blur. I gasped and rolled the dead cat off my legs. Leaning on my scythe, I stood and joined the others.

“Horus! Set your falcon on Caim already!” Coreen shouted from the other side of the ship. One of the demons had nicked her just above the brow and her own brighter blood was running down her face and into her eyes. Horus wiped the blood off his brow and nodded. The black of his eye disappeared once again, lost to the light.

The falcon responded and dove for Caim’s ship, while another hellcat crashed through the deck railing.

“Here kitty, kitty,” Kevin taunted the beast.

His face still held that creepy calm, but his eyes were wilder now. He had torn off his turtleneck, and gobs of sticky demon guts were splattered across his chest and matted in his hair. The hellcat snarled and dug its front claws into deck floor, spli
ntering the blood coated boards. Kevin took a quick sidestep and thrust his scythe into the creature’s middle. It twisted around and hissed at him, ready to attack, but the sound of a distant horn drew its attention away.

One of Caim’s demons perched atop his highest mast and blew the horn again, signaling their retreat. Horus’s fa
lcon circled overhead, preparing to snatch up the little beast, but the light of Horus’s eye found him first and called him off.

The hellcat on our ship looked back at Kevin, e
nraged that it was robbed of the chance to devour him, and then it spotted Coreen. She kneeled on the deck, trying to use the sleeve of her turtleneck to dab the blood out of her eye. The cat hurled itself onto her, sinking its claws into her side, before taking flight.

Coreen’s screams replaced the sounds of battle. I froze, unable to think or move. Josie reached into her quiver, but it was empty. A strangled sob escaped her before she dropped her bow and clasped both hands over her mouth.

A fleeing hellcat came to help Coreen’s captor celebrate their catch. It latched onto her dangling legs, tearing through her slacks and provoking more shrieks. Josie turned away and buried her face in Horus’s shoulder. He wrapped a bloodied arm around her and stared ahead, defeated and hopeless. The sound of ripping flesh and snapping bones was horrid, but seeing Coreen’s insides explode from her as the demons pulled her apart was almost too much. I had to fight to control my breathing as the creatures swooped down and fetched up body pieces like candy from a piñata.

“I should have killed it,” Kevin whispered. The bloodthirsty haze had vanished from his eyes. “Why didn’t I just kill it?”

“We have a job to do.” I tried to keep my voice from trembling as badly as the rest of my body was. Someone had to keep it together, and someone had to help me clean up the ship before the demon blood burned enough holes in it to sink us.

“It’s over, it’s over,” Horus whi
spered in Josie’s ear, rocking her and stroking back her short hair as she sobbed against his neck. The falcon perched itself on the ship, wrapping its talons around the deck railing, or what was left of it anyway. Horus’s eye returned to normal, and the giant bird ascended in a beam of light, back above the clouds.

“Why didn’t I just kill it?” Kevin was still mumbling to himself, swimming in his guilt and coming down from his first blood-high. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. Things weren’t starting out well for him. Grim would assign him a new apprenticeship when we got back, but in the meantime he was going to listen to me.

“Kevin, there’s a stack of buckets and a few mops in a closet next to mine and Josie’s cabin. Go get them,” I ordered.

He headed off without responding, still mumbling to himself and shaking his head.

“How far are we from Duat?” Horus asked over Josie’s shoulder.

“I don’t know, maybe half an hour.”

“Let’s just worry about the bigger puddles for now. I have a niece that can take care of the rest when we get there.”