Ink and Shadows (24 page)

Kismet reached out, his hand jostling the lid of his footlocker. “Can’t leave it.”

“I can get you more of that too.” Lust slid his arm around Kismet’s waist, shoving him toward the open door. His options were limited in San Diego, tied mostly to nighttime activities that had yet to start. With the falling sun, his power grew as people’s desires increased. “Come on. I’ve got someplace we can go and get you a really nice fix.”

The Vice heard sounds coming from the courtyard, a screeching of tires and slamming of doors, as well as the grating accented voice of Famine shouting at another of the Horsemen. Peering out through the crack of the door, Lust craned his neck to see which of the Four were outside, holding his breath in hopes that it would be one of the younger ones. He didn’t want to face Death. Lust had no desire to find out if Death could kill him just by wanting him dead.

Cupping Kismet’s face, Lust lay into the other’s mouth, savoring the edges of sour hanging at the corners of the boy’s lips. Gluttony was right. There were taints of insanity in the boy’s soul, a childlike specter drawn into him and anchored by guilt. The boy’s lust-ridden eyes darkened, his pupils gulping at the color of his eyes, leeching the last shreds of Kismet’s will. Drowning in the seductive pull of Lust’s influence, Kismet broke away, dazed with the struggle to fill his lungs with cool air.

“Come on, pretty.” Lust yanked on Kismet’s arm, dragging the young man out onto the walkway. “We can probably cut around to the back and out the alleyway before anyone notices us. With Luck, we’ll be gone soon, and then I’ll find out exactly how much you’re worth.”

D
EATH
BEING
near was comforting, Ari decided. In the beginning, when they first fought wraiths, Ari lost all sense of what was around him, thrilled at the taste of blood in his mouth. Neither of them had any defensive skills, and when the battle ended, Ari discovered he’d caused most of Death’s injuries.

Over time, they learned to fight alongside the other, more out of survival at first, then habit, until it became second nature. Ari’s side felt empty without Death there, aching in the dark of the night when his bed lay cold. During a fight, Ari could touch freely. Once weapons were forged, they established where they were standing with the touch of their blades. It became a sound Ari loved to hear.

“What’s taking it so long?” Ari chafed with the waiting, looking around him with a practiced, assessing eye.

Death grinned beside him, a slanting flirtation marred by the run of silver scarring over his pretty face. The child inside of Ari amused Death, a feral innocence simplified in Ari’s glee.

Stretching his arm out, Ari yanked at the Veil, trying to pull it closer as a woman stared at him and Death, her chin dropped nearly to her chest. Ari risked taking his eyes off the bird, noticing that their presence was drawing more than a little attention from the humans around them. The security guard they’d spotted earlier spoke urgently into his radio, a squawking rattle in his voice as he called for assistance.

“Shit. We’re visible. Damned
human
can see us.” Ari felt a lurch in his belly when the Veil broke around him. Desperate to fold it back, Ari reached out with his mind, finding nothing to hold on to. “Fuck, Death. We’re in trouble here.”

Death pushed at the Veil, trying to shove it closed as it tore, its edges unraveling from around Ari and then pulling free of them both. Exerting his will, Death reached deep into the well of power, his ability to manipulate the shadows greater than Ari’s, but the Veil buckled and slipped away from Death’s grasp.

“Damn it, it’s not closing.” Death tried again, the shadowy curtain sliding away from their bodies.

A woman watched them as she passed, her grocery cart laden with bags. Creasing her forehead, she hurried past, giving the armed men a wide berth.

“Try a bit harder.” The blond swallowed the bile burning his throat, the fluctuations making his stomach turn.

“I can’t close it, Ari.” Death bit back his anger, feeling naked stripped clean of the shadows. “The Veil’s trying to close, but it’s too thin. It keeps breaking apart.”

The wraith circled again, trying to reach its prey below. Death stared up at the sky, seeing the stark ice blue without the filmy taint of the Veil. Ari followed Death’s gaze, taking in the expanse of brilliant cerulean with a shrug.

“Death, we’ve got other things to do besides stare up at the sky.” Ari nudged him. “Yeah, it’s a pretty blue, but it’s just blue.”

“Stop for a second and pay attention for a change.” Death pushed at Ari’s hand, the elder Horseman scanning the sweeping shadow overhead. “It’s heading away from us. We should be pulling it in just by being here.”

“Shit, okay I see it. What the hell is going on?” Ari asked. The bird hovered, searching for something on the ground. The immortal was spoiling for a fight. The temper he’d been carrying over the past few days needed to be worked out of his system. The wraith would be a fine distraction from his want for Death.

“I don’t think it’s interested in us,” Death murmured, pointing up at the trail of a talon as it struck downward, leaving a smear of charcoal along the rim of the Veil’s tear. “It’s heading away.”

“Son of a bitch.” Ari gnashed his teeth. “It’s probably got the boy’s scent.”

“How far is that motel? Do you remember?” Death asked. A small crowd was gathering at the end of the sidewalk, intrigued by the two men wielding weapons in the middle of a San Diego strip mall. The cluster of mortals made him uneasy, their too short lives shining out of their curious eyes. “If we’re closer to the boy, it might get confused by our presence. We could mask him.”

“It’s not far, maybe a block away, but I think Mal took his keys with him. The place is pretty easy to find. It’s got a bright blue roof.” Ari jerked his chin toward the east, pointing out an alleyway past the grocery store. “We can just cut through the crowd there. Probably make it on foot.”

“No killing the humans. Come on, then,” Death said, breaking into a sprint toward the alley.

Ari sighed, running after his friend, avoiding the people gathering at the grocery store entrance.

“Gods, we need to work on your English,” Ari muttered, easing his shoulders through a gap in a chain-link fence, Death a few feet ahead of him. “And if that was a joke, then we also have to work on your sense of humor.”

Sirens sounded off in the distance, a complication neither of the Horsemen wanted to deal with. The air shuddered as the mortal world shook around them. The outlying shadows buckled, trying to seal its ends together. Death debated their options. Heading into the Veil would draw the wraith toward Kismet, but standing out in the open would lead to trouble. Decision made, he pulled Ari toward the break in the buildings.

The wail grew louder, and Death’s elbow into his ribs urged Ari to break out of a steady run toward the motel. A lingering shadow clotted the alley entrance, promising a thicker cover of shadows just beyond the side street. The Horsemen sprinted, disappearing into the ebbing curtain.

“We must have made someone nervous.” Ari watched the shadowy creature dive down, circling tighter around the area. “Guess cops don’t like people showing up at grocery stores with weapons.”

Ari grunted when the Veil swallowed them, the shadows bursting into his chest, welling into his blood. Standing exposed in the middle of the sidewalk had been soul wrenching, an experience he never wanted to have again. Death pulled the curtain close, corralling it until the shadowy camouflage hid them from sight. Echoes of their bodies cast long, dark shapes against the nearby walls, the cracked Veil unable to fully envelop them.

“There!” Death pointed as the bird broke off its arc, drawn by the ripple of the two Horsemen entering the thin shadows.

“Still kind of open here.” As he crossed into the comfort of the darkness, Ari’s lungs filled with the sweetness of the Veil, flowing through his ancient body. Glancing around, Ari edged into a side street, assessing the space for a fight. A nearby pair of dark green Dumpsters would provide cover to cut down the wraith’s angles of attack. “Over there, Shi. We need to minimize its options.”

“I think killing it will minimize its options,” Death remarked, following close behind Ari.

Stepping clear of the garbage spilling over onto the ground, Death lifted his gaze, searching the sky for the summoned creature. A sooty trail arced over behind them, the wraith’s wings leaving an echo of gray as it struck the Veil. Screaming with renewed strength, its cry rattled down onto the pair, Death firmly planting his feet in anticipation of its attack.

As the wraith came closer, its stink rankled Ari’s nostrils, overloading his senses. The shadow’s odor overwhelmed the sickly sweet rot of human refuse, and Ari cleared the stench from his nose with a snort. Death raised his weapon, the scar on his face turning silver in the light when he turned his shoulders toward Ari’s back.

“Why are we doing this?” Ari gagged on the creature’s smell, scraping his tongue under his front teeth. “Why aren’t we just letting it eat the kid?”

“This is just the beginning of it, Ari,” Death said. “It’ll grow bigger and break out of the Veil.”

“And eat more humans.” The blond Horseman sighed, balancing his weight to be ready for the bird. “Yeah, got to save the humans. Can’t let them get eaten by shadows.”

“Do you really think we should let this one get the boy and walk away?”

“No,” Ari growled. “This damned thing isn’t getting as far as the boy. Hell, it’s not getting down the street. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

There was no worry in Ari’s voice. The lack of concern wasn’t surprising to Death. He was accustomed to Ari’s faith in winning any argument or battle he set his mind to. To lose something he wanted was inconceivable to the blond Horseman. He would continue to hammer at a problem until the person or thing surrendered. As far as he was concerned, Ari would lay siege for all eternity to get what he wanted. As far as Death knew, this wraith had no chance.

Before humans concentrated on hating one another, a break in the Veil meant relatively easy hunting, slithering demonic creatures clustered in a small area, the holes punched into the shadowy curtain pulled back together and held by an immortal’s will. The Veil healed itself, knitting threads back together, then strengthening the bond. As mankind spread and paranoia began to taint innate hatreds, blood and curses called forth wraiths, summoned unknowingly through small magics and ill wishes.

Then the humans began to learn how to summon the shadows, and the Horsemen found themselves in a battle against the Veiled creatures.

Death and Ari lived through the centuries of hunting large shadow wraiths feeding off entire villages, the creatures often leaving nothing behind but smoking bones. The Horsemen spent hours in the cold of a winter river washing the ashen powder from their bodies, the pale dust from walking through fields littered with dried, crackling skeletons. Their lives were a blur then, often falling down exhausted to sleep where they could, only to be up an hour or so later to hunt again.

They would have to find the human responsible for calling up this latest wraith, or the Four Horsemen would return to those long days, smoky, depressing months searching for things that fed on human flesh with a delighted, ravenous glee. The other immortals would hopefully help close the Veil’s breaches, but Death had little faith in that.

What help they got these days seemed to be grudgingly given, usually ignored until Death begged for support. He had no confidence that any help would be forthcoming if wraiths broke through the Veil.

Standing ankle-deep in the runny, spoiled garbage behind a convenience store, Death was sorry he’d forgotten Ari’s dedication. A fierceness ran strong in Ari’s character, devoted to the Horsemen and, more importantly, to their leader. He’d wondered if Ari would always be there beside him, a constant companion until time burned down. Now Death began to have doubts that Ari would ever leave. The thought both scared and thrilled the eldest Horseman.

“Paying attention here, Shi?” Ari asked, noticing the distracted look in Death’s eyes. “I’m about to save you from getting your ass kicked. I’d like you to at least notice.”

The wraith’s talons stretched outward, its thick body barreling down through the air. Wings tucked behind its fabricated shoulder blades, it sliced at Ari’s head, nearly catching the tip of its diamond-hard claw on his cheek. Jerking his head away, Ari twisted, letting the momentum carry him around and leaving room for Death’s attack.

The dark-haired Horseman stabbed at the space where Ari’s head had been moments ago, carving a chunk of shadowed meat from the wraith’s outstretched limb. Its thick blood spurted from the wound, Death wincing and gritting his teeth in pain when the acidic fluid splashed over his bare forearm. Rolling his shoulder under the strike, Death continued the motion through, curling around Ari’s hips as he moved past.

Ari surged forward, one of his long daggers a flash, biting into the wraith’s back before it turned away from them. Nearly losing his balance on the slippery asphalt, the blond swore, stepping back to avoid Death’s legs. Ari’s face bled feral with delight, hands clenched tight around the hilts of his weapons, and he urged the wraith to circle around again.

It arced, its crimson eyes narrowing in wicked malevolence. Screaming with pain, the wraith wobbled in midflight. Its right leg hung useless from its body, the joint severed by Death’s katana. The elongating shadows clustered in the alley shivered under the dripping fluids of the bird’s wound, faint smoke rings puffing into the air when the drops struck, tadpole-like wraiths feeding voraciously on the mewling, injured bodies of their dying swarm-mates. The ground at Ari’s feet emptied of ambient darkness, a hungry tide flowing toward the carnage.

“You okay?” Ari didn’t dare take his eyes off the bird, its wings beating a gale wind through the narrow street, the carrion smell nearly choking the blond as he inhaled.