Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1) (20 page)

“She will die, and her rage will be meaningless.”

“Death born of anger is a death of pain.”

Man alive, these spirits were chatty today. “Where is he?” I snapped.

“He who?”

“Who he?”

“We are alone.”

They laughed. They. Fucking. Laughed.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a malevolent death spirit laugh, when the sound itself feels like it’s coming from inside your own head, but let me tell you—few things in life are that creepy. My skin crawled, and every intelligent part of my being was screaming at me to get out of that apartment.

Glancing over my shoulder at Leo, I was impressed to still find him in the doorway. His expression was twisted in discomfort, but he showed no sign of leaving. Apparently now that he knew what the Keres were, he wasn’t going to let them drive him from his stolen home.

I wouldn’t want to sleep here with them around, mind you. The nightmares would be ones for the ages. If you could fall asleep in the first place.

“We’ll still be here when you’re both dead.” The voice was so light and singsong it was childlike and innocent. The words sounded all wrong in that sweet tone.

If the Keres wanted to be especially unnerving, they should try to take form as little girls. That would really throw people for a loop.

“You didn’t find me by accident.” I started prowling through the apartment again, even though I knew perfectly well it was empty. There would be a sign of him—of it—here somewhere. Leo had called me crazy, but in truth I’d never felt so grounded. Or at least as grounded as one could be when three demonic children were chanting threats inside your head.

“We are wise.”

“We are the Keres.”

“Sisters of the Fates.”

“We see your death.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh my gods, I get it. I
get
it. Terrible things are coming for me. I’m destined for a violent death.
Whatever
. Could you idiots shut up for two seconds?”

“Insolent.”

“Rude.”

This last made me laugh because it sounded like something I would say. Sometimes I was blown away by how similar the gods could be to us mere mortals, whether they wanted to admit it or not.

I turned a corner and walked straight into Leo, who had come in when I wasn’t paying attention. “What are you looking for?” he asked.

“The last shreds of my sanity.”

“Good luck with that.”

I huffed and moved back in the direction of the kitchen, managing to tune out the spirits as they continued to yammer away about my doom. What had begun as something truly terrifying was now more like white noise. Once the element of surprise was gone, they weren’t all that scary.

Going for the knife block on the counter, I retrieved the largest butcher knife, something with a big, sharp blade.

Spirits didn’t bleed, but meddling gods sure did.

“Seriously, Tallulah.” Leo grabbed my arm, a bold move considering I was holding a giant knife. “What are you looking for?”

“Mormo.”

And like his name served as a summons, the smell of sulfur suddenly wafted into the room. In the heat of the summer evening the smell was almost unbearable. It felt heavy, like it might actually sink into my blood through my pores. My nose wrinkled instinctively out of disgust, and Leo mirrored the gesture, gagging.

“Fuck me.” He let go of my arm so he could cover his nose. “That’s the worst fucking thing I’ve ever smelled.”

It was like a sewer backup, if the sewer was backing up a corpse made of shit.

“Mormo,” I growled again.

I was glad I’d gotten all the puking out of my system earlier that night, because if I hadn’t, I’d sure want to right now.

“Who’s Mormo?” Leo’s voice was muffled by his arm, but I had no trouble making out the question.

“Mormo’s a backstabbing traitor who is going to meet the pointy end of Mr. Knifey here.” I waved the butcher knife and pushed past Leo, back into the hallway.

“
Where are you?
” I rounded the corner and whipped open a closet door. The smell wafted out, smacking me in the face and I winced. I closed my stinging eyes, tears dripping down my cheek.

The knife between my ribs came as an unexpected shock.

Chapter Twenty-One

I stared down at the blade in my stomach, a few inches below my breast, and let out a burbled “
Uh”
of surprise.

Mormo emerged from the closet like a monster out of a dream, his size too large to properly fit in the small space. He loomed tall and imposing, towering over me in the way a shadow climbing a wall might. I touched the place he had stabbed me, thinking,
Shouldn’t it hurt more?

“He’s here!” The spirit voices chanted in unison, before falling silent.

“Sssstupid girl.”

My fingers came away covered in blood, and that was when the pain hit me, like ripping off a Band-Aid. First didn’t feel anything, and in an instant it was as though I was being shredded from the inside. It was just a knife, but it felt like a million tiny claws and teeth were cutting me apart.

I let out an anguished wail, gripping the blade. I needed this thing out of me
now
.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Mormo said, his voice lilting with a strange kind of joy. “Unlessss you want to die right now, insssstead of later.”

Yes, yes I did want to die. Death would mean I no longer had to feel the agony of having the blade inside me. My blood was turning into molten lava, steaming me alive from within. My skin was crawling with bugs.

This was no normal knife.

I’d been hurt before. I’d been
stabbed
before. Physical violence wasn’t my favorite, but I was no stranger to pain. Clerics weren’t always popular, and my job was rarely easy. Yet in all my years of doing it, I’d never experienced any sensation quite like this.

Tears were streaming down my cheeks, and every breath was more difficult than the last, until I was only able to take the tiniest sips of air, hyperventilating as I tried to fill my lungs.

This all happened so fast Leo hadn’t come into the room yet.

When he emerged, it felt like months had gone by, each heartbeat an agonizing step closer to certain death. Instead it had only been seconds, and he looked as shocked as I felt.

“
Tallulah
.” His timing was impeccable. He arrived at my side as my knees gave out, and he held me close as he lowered me to the floor. In doing so he jostled the knife, and I let out a scream that was more like the cry of an injured animal than any sound a human should make. “I need to take this out.”

As he reached for the knife handle, I shook my head violently, barely gurgling a “
No
.”

He froze, hand hovering. “It’s going to hurt but—”

He went silent as Mormo moved in, towering over us. How Leo had missed Mormo’s presence up until that point I don’t know. I guess a knife stuck in me was pretty distracting, but still.

“Hello, sssson of Sssseth.”

Leo blinked a couple times, then grabbed the butcher knife clutched in my hand. I’d totally forgotten I still had it. Funny how blinding amounts of unbearable pain will blot out the little things.

“Who the
fuck
are you?” Leo was on his feet, standing between me and Mormo. I’d come here to save him, but looking at things now, I had to wonder if I was even needed. The guy was a mountain. He was half-god. What kind of safety could I offer him he couldn’t find for himself?

I wriggled backwards, using my elbows to pull myself farther from Mormo, towards the front door. Being outside wouldn’t be any better, but my instincts were telling me I had to get out of here.

“I am the one who hassss found you.” Mormo smiled, his twisted, inhuman face showing humor in a truly terrifying way that made Badb’s shark teeth seem downright charming.

Badb.

Why did the flickering vision of her face seem so timely now, like there was something I should be remembering? I slumped back down on the floor, my head thumping against the hardwood. Badb’s face disappeared and was replaced with Cade’s.

Brown eyes, thick brows knitted in concern. His broad boxer’s nose and too-serious haircut. What would he look like if he let it grow, gave up that small sliver of control and let the curl come back to his hair?

I smiled.

“I wish you’d gotten here on time,” I whispered.

My memory of Cade didn’t reply, he remained solemn and intense. If I had to die with his face on my mind, at least I’d remember him as he truly was, not some romanticized version.

Dying.

Badb.

Cade looked more intense, and muttered, “You idiot.”

I sat bolt upright with a gasp, then shrieked as the motion drove the knife deeper into me. When I coughed into my hand from the shock of the new pain, my fingers once again came back bloody. If I was coughing up blood, things were much worse than I had thought.

Right in front of my face, dangling from my wrist, was the bracelet Badb had given me. The skeletal hands clasped in together like a macabre game of “Ring Around the Rosie”. Though that nursery rhyme was pretty fucked up if you listened to the lyrics. The links glowed faintly.

I couldn’t be killed as long as I was wearing it, that’s what she’d told me.

No matter how bad it hurt, I wouldn’t die, that was how it was supposed to work. If that was true, the agony was only temporary, and in spite of every sign pointing to my death, this wasn’t the end for me. The blade was enchanted, that much was obvious from the pain. I glanced down at the wound through a film of tears, my hands trembling as I touched the handle of the knife.

The placement was all wrong for a kill, I could see that clearly now that I really looked.

If he’d wanted me dead, the knife should have been higher, or more centered. Or lower, where he could have fucked up my stomach or liver.

Instead he’d nestled the blade precisely where it would cause me a lot of discomfort and keep me down for the count, but not kill me.

Shaking, I gripped the knife and sucked in a deep breath.

What if Badb was lying?

If she was lying, it wouldn’t matter at this point. I’d bleed out, and Manea would get her hands on Leo no matter what. But I had to at least try to do something. Even if it was something profoundly stupid.

Leo was squared off against Mormo, the man and the monster almost equal in height, and for a moment I truly thought Leo might be able to take Mormo on.

Then I remembered Mormo was a god.

Sure, a traitorous, ass-kissing, ugly-as-fuck god, but an immortal creature nevertheless. Leo was still human, in spite of who his father was. If this came to blows, Mormo would wipe the floor with the demigod.

Mormo was clearly trying to avoid attacking Leo directly.

“Sssstop, boy. Thissss will only be more difficult for you. Sssstand down.”

Leo jabbed at him with the butcher knife, lunging towards the god with the obvious intent of returning the favor for what Mormo had done to me. The god weaved out of the way, scuttling down the hall towards me like a spider backed into a corner.

“I’m not here for the taking, freak.” Leo held the knife up, looking slightly awkward with it in his hand. I doubted he had any regular need to use a bladed weapon. “Go tell your beloved death goddess to
fuck off
.”

Whoa. Check out the balls on this guy.

“Sssstupid.” Mormo was standing over me now, and he grabbed me by the hair, hoisting me back up to my feet while I tried—and failed—to catch my breath. The handle of the knife was in my hand, and my mind was reeling, trying to settle on what to do next. Being dragged around by my hair wasn’t the best way to help me focus.

“Hey,” I wheezed. “What’s with you calling people sssstupid all the time?” I mimicked him as best I could, but feigning his signature sibilance reduced me to a new fit of coughing. Blood droplets splattered on the floor around my feet.

Badb might have been full of shit. Perhaps she’d been lying to get Manea’s favor, but at this point I’d rather risk it than suffer this sensation any longer. Whatever the knife was doing to me, I couldn’t take another second of it.

“Sssstupid mortalssss desssserve to be dissssmissssed.”

I glanced at the creature who leered at me with his monstrous, hideous face, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he didn’t care whether I lived or died, or how badly I suffered. His face lacked any kind of empathy. The way he looked at me was not unlike the way someone looks at a bug they’ve just crushed underfoot.

I was nothing more than a smear beneath his cloven hooves.

Fuck. That.

“Dismiss this, asshole.” I pulled the knife out of my ribs, and it felt like all my internal organs went along with it. Any subtle surprise the action might have had was diminished by my scream, but it didn’t make any difference. Mormo hadn’t expected me to fight back.

I plunged the blade into his neck, which he’d so thoughtfully exposed to me when he pulled me off the floor.

Mormo dropped me, and since I had absolutely no strength left beyond what I’d used to stab him, I landed on the hardwood with a loud, painful
thud
. The god was yowling, clutching at the wound and staggering backwards towards the door.

That whole no-empathy thing was feeling pretty good right about now.

Whatever he’d done to the knife was working its terrible magic on him, like Badb had promised. I would have liked her to be a bit more specific about how the bracelet’s enchantment functioned, but as long as it did what she suggested it would, I didn’t care about the fine print.

“Bitch,” Mormo spat.

I tilted my head back, unable to prop myself up to get a better look at his struggle. “Don’t worry, it won’t kill you, you immortal prick.” Pressing my hand to the open wound between my ribs, I sucked in a breath, the world around me going hazy. I doubted I’d be conscious much longer.

In the darkness was a faint ray of sunlight, growing ever brighter as I drifted out of my sensible mind. It was still night, so I understood I was imagining the light, yet I was drawn to it anyway. Somewhere, like an echo or a barely remembered thought, I heard Mormo thump against the wall, fighting with the blade and cursing me up and down. The three Keres were whispering about death, but they sounded more like insects now than actual threats.