Authors: Rhys Ford
“W
AS
M
AL
awake?” Death’s husky voice greeted Ari as he entered the living area. Min was nowhere to be seen, probably counting boxes of cereal in the pantry off the laundry room.
“We woke him.” Ari watched the long-legged Horseman fixing himself a cup of tea. “Mal said he’ll be up once he gets showered and dressed. Poor kid was sleeping hard.”
Death didn’t respond, swirling the tea ball around in the hot water. His thoughts were half on the
boy who fled the Horsemen’s home and also on the blond hovering close. Waiting for the water to darken,
Death tensed when Ari drew near. The other man’s strong hands rested on Death’s hips, Ari’s touch
intimate. Pressed up against the counter, Death considered shoving Ari back, sending him away, but the
delicious tingle of their bodies barely brushing against one another comforted him, as well as startled the
kernel of secrets Death kept deep inside of himself.
“Leave off,” Death said, nearly whispering. Ari smiled at the wavering in Death’s words. Ari’s hands slowed but remained on Death’s hips.
“You and I both know that you don’t want me to leave off.” Resting his chin on Death’s shoulder, Ari inhaled the spicy green tea cologne Death preferred. The soft cotton of his chambray shirt pillowed under a scar on Ari’s chin, nearly as sensuous as the tickle of black hair along his cheek. “I don’t know why you push me away when I know you want nothing more than to hold me closer.”
“We can’t,” Death murmured, closing his eyes. He allowed himself the moment, just that single
touch of Ari on him. His mind screamed a mute defiance, his body rebelliously luxuriating in the
skimming of Ari’s hands over his stomach, resting there before dropping back down to his waist. “We
have things we have to do. This complicates everything.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Ari whispered into the shell of Death’s ear. “I think it would simplify things. I’m not sure what you’re afraid of more. What you think I’ll do to you or what you think you’ll do to me. I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you.”
“You might.” Twisting away from the other Horseman, Death reached for the sugar, hands
shaking with the effort. “We don’t know. I can’t.”
“No, we don’t know anything. We never know anything,” Ari responded. “I’m willing to take any chance I can get. I’ve always been the risk taker. Sometimes I wish you would just say to hell with it and for once take a chance. What do you have to lose?”
Death tilted his head back, saved from answering as Min strolled into the main part of the penthouse. Looking from one to the other, she sighed, fixing a baleful glare at the blond Horseman. “What the hell have you done now? Wasn’t he pissed off enough?”
“I’m not mad,” Death insisted, waving off Min’s protests. “Ari and I were discussing a few things.”
“I know how he discusses things,” Min retorted. “Everything’s all hands and tongue.”
“How about if we just go back to worrying about Mal’s little pet? Sad to say, that’s a safe topic.” Ari’s smile was cold, icy with fury. Pushing past Min, he strode over to Mal’s rooms, shouting at the Horseman to hurry up.
“Are you okay?” Min asked quietly, drawing near to Death’s side.
“I’m fine,” he assured her, the words sounding hollow in his ears. “Really, we’re both fine. It’s just something that we need to work out between us.”
“You’ve had eons,” Min reminded him offhandedly, running her fingers through her hair, spiking the ends up more. “If you two haven’t worked it out by now, you’re never going to work it out.”
“We’ll be fine,” Death insisted. “I just frustrate him a bit.”
“Well, try not to do that much.” Min looked worried, a furrow across her brow. “Last time you frustrated him more than that, we had World War II. I’m busy enough as it is. I don’t need any more work, thank you both very much.”
“Promise.” Death’s angelic face creased with a smile. The silver line across the bridge of his nose caught the light, kissing a white streak over his cheek. “It won’t get to that.”
“Better not.” Min wagged her finger at the eldest Horseman. “You all ran me ragged, and it just made me grumpy. Grumpy leaves lines. Makes wrinkles. I’m too pretty to get wrinkles.”
Ari returned, wordlessly helping himself to a cup of coffee, brushing against Death’s leg while reaching for a spoon. Their eyes met, and Ari’s gaze softened, his mouth forming a curse against the power Death had over him.
The dark-haired Horseman gave him a soft smile before heading into the living area with his tea.
Ari poured another mug of coffee, adding sugar, then a hefty dollop of cream before handing the steaming cup
to Mal. Mal gratefully accepted the creamy coffee, deeply inhaling the steam and letting the aroma
creep into his tiredness, chasing it away.
“What do we know about this boy?” Death waited for Mal to sit down. Ari straddled the arm of the couch near Death. Min slid down into an armchair, swinging her leg up and tucking it beneath her.
“Other than the fact that he’s a thief?” Min snorted.
“And the same scrawny size as our Famine?” Ari grinned as Min bared her teeth at him.
“I know his name is Kismet Andreas. And that he uses drugs.” Mal struggled to remember more, something other than the pout of the artist’s lower lip and the cinnamon heat of his eyes. “Heroin, I think he said. I thought his arms were damaged by the wraith, but later I realized that they were needle marks.”
“Well, now that message from beyond makes more sense. Kismet. And he really is a druggie. I
was just guessing.” Ari sipped at his coffee, ruminating over the information. “I’m surprised he didn’t
take the cash to get more drugs. An opportunist but not disrespectful to the people who helped him out.
Got to admire that in a street kid.”
“The drug use makes sense.” Death nodded. “I think he was seeing the Veil before whatever happened to him to force him through to the other side, to our side. I found slips of drawings in the pocket of his jeans. It looked like he sketched wraiths and other Veiled.”
“What makes you say that?” Min cocked her head, swinging her foot back and forth. “You think he’s one of us?”
“The blood on his shirt smells like ours,” Death said. “But from what Mal says, Kismet knows who he is. He’s been human all this time, and now he’s an immortal.”
“So no calling?” Min whistled under her breath. “An immortal human. Guess they were right about us bringing on the Apocalypse.”
“That wraith had him full around the throat. I thought when it happened it was because the thing was that strong. Like one of the old wraiths from Eire,” Ari replied. “That monster just didn’t fall out of the shadows without someone yanking its chain.”
“Kismet probably broke the Veil open, but that wouldn’t have called a wraith,” Death remarked, stroking the scar across his face. He leaned forward, a pale stretch of skin showing along his back as his shirt rode up. “Did he call up the wraith? Could this boy have gained that kind of knowledge?”
“Shi, from what I saw of the kid, I’d be surprised if he could get his own shadow to follow him.” Ari shook his head. “The kid barely had enough strength to scream in pain.”
“What about the wraith that jumped us in the garage?” Mal asked. “That thing was plenty strong. Did that fall out of the Veil too?”
“That thing was old. It ate its way up the food chain.” Ari shot the blond a dirty look. Giving Death a cocky grin, he dismissed it outright. “Nothing really to worry about. I took care of it.”
“You didn’t say anything about an attack in the garage.” Death looked up at Ari. Shifting uncomfortably, Ari waved him off, clearing his throat when the black-eyed Horseman prodded him with an index finger to the small of his back.
“It attacked us.” Ari shrugged. “I figured it was because we just walked into its hunting. You
know how some of them are. I think it strayed out of its normal hunting grounds and figured it could feed
on us.”
“They aren’t that bold. Think it’s connected to the boy?” Death said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Some of them are pretty cocky. Especially if it finds itself someplace without a lot of emotion to feed on. After a while they get desperate. Anything behind the Veil becomes food,” Ari replied. “It was hungry and went after Mal. I took care of it.”
“It tossed me into one of the columns.” Mal nodded, sipping at his coffee. “I was surprised it could do that much damage to your car, but then that wraith today took a hydrant apart. And that was much smaller than a car.”
“How much damage?” Death tilted his head, staring up at Ari’s innocent-seeming face. “You let it damage my car and attack Mal? Is it still drivable, or is it dead like my horse?”
“Told you.” Ari pointed at Mal. “Shoot his horse once and that’s it. Everything is blamed on you
for the rest of eternity. That horse would have been long dead by now, Death, with or without the
arrow in it.”
“It’s not that bad. The car, I mean. You won’t be able to drive it because the fender’s dented down over the wheel, but it can be fixed,” Mal protested, slapping away Ari’s hand. “And it wasn’t his fault. The wraith attacked me out of nowhere. Ari got it off of me before I got seriously hurt.”
“Uh-huh.” Death pursed his mouth. “Anything else you left out, Ari?”
“Can we get back to the kid and forget about the car for a bit?” Min asked. “You can scream at Ari later.”
“Yes, let’s yell at Ari later.” Ari reached over, playfully slapping at Mal’s head. “The kid will probably head back to the place we found him. I’m guessing he lives there.”
“If he’s using drugs, he’ll need something soon. He might have more stashed there. Or we can hope he has more there. I don’t want to spend hours hunting for him on the streets,” Death said. “I also want to know what brought him over. That’s not happened for centuries. I wonder if someone in the Courts pulled him over and he got loose somehow.”
“Tam Lin. Johnson. Pousão.” Ari ticked a few off on his fingers. “The Courts do like their artists.”
“But not lately. Not like they used to. They haven’t grabbed anyone in decades.” Shifting forward, Min rested her chin on the mound of her palm.
“No Fae would be able to make him immortal. He’d have remained human. Just unseen. This is different,” Death said thoughtfully.
Ari stood, absently reaching for Death’s empty cup of tea. Ari grunted when the other Horseman nodded and murmured his thanks. His attention followed Ari’s progress to the kitchen, dragging reluctantly back to the others.
“Someone had to pull him across the Veil. Someone with power and probably wanting to do it again.”
“Did he say anything about someone else?” Ari asked from the kitchen.
“I didn’t talk to him,” Min remarked. “Pest did.”
“He doesn’t have anyone else.” Mal turned his mug in his hands. “I think he’s alone, but I can’t see him letting someone do something to him. He’s pretty strong willed.”
“Cooties, you don’t get out enough to know about humans,” Min muttered.
“How strong could his will be if he’s using drugs to run away from the shadows that can’t even hurt him?” Ari padded back, handing Death a refilled mug.
Death turned the cat’s face around until its nose rested against the crook of his thumb, then spoke. “Sometimes, humans use drugs or alcohol to numb themselves so they don’t see the Veil. It doesn’t mean he’s weak.”
“The wraith attacked him directly. It was standing over him and ignoring the other human.” Ari reconstructed what he saw when he pulled the Mustang up to the motel. “It saw me, but it didn’t even blink. It wasn’t going to let him go.”
“A summoned creature usually goes for a prey that someone’s cast for. So there’s someone who held its leash,” Death mused aloud. The boy was definitely prey for someone. “An immortal showing up should have drawn it away. You’d be a threat. At the very least, it would try to protect its prey, thinking you were the greater predator. It could be someone in the Courts wants him.”
“Or human,” Min pointed out. “There’s always a few out there that meddle in things they shouldn’t.”
“It was trying to drag the kid someplace.” Ari tried to reconstruct what he’d seen, the incident
clouded from the adrenaline in his blood during the fight. “The wraith was hunkered down over him. Its feet
were dug in and pulling on him. I think it was trying to take him elsewhere.”
“And since they’re not that smart, it would have to be given a simple command.” Death sipped at his tea, feeling the heat sink into the chill in his body. “It would have to take the boy someplace close. The wraith wouldn’t be able to drag the boy by jumping through the Veil. It wouldn’t have the strength.”
“I don’t know,” Ari said. “It was dragging him off, but it was having problems. Something powerful enough to affect the outside world should have been able to pick up the kid and fling him around like he was a rag doll.”
“So perhaps it couldn’t get a good hold on him? Maybe right then, the boy was between worlds?” Death set his mug down. “Whatever it was changing him could have finished the job by the time you two brought him here. You said he wasn’t conscious while you drove. Was he disoriented?”
“I’m guessing yes and with a big headache,” Min said, motioning toward Mal. “He woke up and asked Pest for some aspirin. I don’t think Mal pushed himself out of the Veil to talk to him.”
“No. I didn’t.” Mal realized he’d just sat down and started talking to the young man sprawled out on the couch. He hadn’t had to take the time or energy to pull himself into Kismet’s reality, using his will to force himself into view. “I didn’t even think about it at the time. I mean, I never do that at home.”
“You wouldn’t have thought of it,” Death assured him. “This is our home. Remember? The Veil doesn’t extend inside our home.”
“He said something to Mal after I got the wraith off of him.” The others looked at Ari, sliding off the arm and nestling into the space next to Death. “Spoke right to him. I didn’t think anything about that at all either. A lot of the crazies talk to us. Doesn’t mean they’re one of us. It just means they can see us.”