jinn 03 - vestige (22 page)

I shook my head. “What makes you think he’s going to come back, especially to see me?”

“Because you’re the first person he has come out for since he disappeared.”

I scrunched my nose. “Is that what you think? He didn’t come to see me. He turned Maggie because he was working for Hell and they were taking jabs at Holden. He didn’t even know I was involved.”

Corbin rolled his eyes. “You honestly believe that? He gave up his racket and exposed himself for what he really is—”

“And what is that?”

“Don’t be blinded by a single act of conscience. He’s a coward, a traitor, and worst of all, careless. He’ll be brought to justice and made to pay for all the lives he destroyed.”

“Vampire lives.”

Corbin turned his head very slowly toward me. “Does that make them somehow less worthy?”

I pulled the car over and stopped. In the center of the empty street was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. A single door stood with nothing around it. On the front, about eye level, a handwritten sign read “Questions answered. Justice Served. Free Hugs.”

Corbin, oblivious, continued to try to stare me down, even though I’d clearly moved on. “Do you see this?” I said.

“Answer the question,” he ground out.

“No, okay? Taking a life is taking a life regardless of the ass hat who owns it. Happy?”

He rolled his eyes, but looked forward. “What is that?”

“You see the door.”

He nodded. “Drive around it.”

I already had my seatbelt off and was getting out of the car into the rain. Driving around it might have been smarter, but curiosity won out. The door was a gnarled gray thing that bore a single shiny silver doorknob. From the backside of where the door should be, the road was empty, but when I walked back to the front again, the door was still there waiting.

I reached for the knob.

“You aren’t seriously stupid enough to open that? You have no idea where it leads or what it does,” Corbin called out as lightning flashed.

“There’s only one way to find that out.”

“I thought finding your friend’s ashes was more important.”

I hesitated. He had a point. I was on a mission, but Olivia wasn’t even here and there was really nothing I could do until she got back, except sit in a car with Corbin. I’d take my chances with the door.

My fingers closed over the cool metal knob and pulled. The door swung open with a creaking sound. The other side was simply darkness.

“Don’t be stupid, Femi,” Corbin said, grabbing my arm.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I said, stretching my free hand into the darkness. It disappeared. I wiggled my fingers on the other side and it felt just the same—at least it was still raining. I just wanted to see what was on the other side then we could go. “I need to know what it is.”

“It’s magic. I feel its pull, too. Judging by the curiosity it’s appealing to—and the fact it appeared on the road you happened to be on—I’d guess it was designed for you. Don’t be so easy. Walk away.”

He was right, of course, and I knew it. When I tried to pull back, however, something grabbed my hand and pulled from the other side. I yanked my arm back, but whatever had me pulled even harder, sliding me forward.

“Corbin,” I managed to say just before I tumbled through the doorway and whatever held me let go.

Corbin didn’t let go or pull back. He came with me through the door with a pissed off look on his face. We stood in a forest. There was nothing around us except trees.

“Any idea where we are?” he asked.

“No clue.” I took a couple steps forward, but the vampire kept a firm, yet gentle grip on my elbow. “You could have pulled me back,” I said.

“I also could have torn off your arm,” he said, looking behind us. “The door is gone.”

“Of course it is.” The spot actually looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place from where. One forest pretty much looked like all the others: trees, leaves, moss, and little critters scurrying around. My ear prickled and my face twitched at every sound. Something brought us here, and Corbin was probably right that it wanted me—or maybe him. It wasn’t like he was making friends.

Leaves whipped passed my face as the wind picked up and my skin prickled with the sheer power it held. Shit.

“Who did you piss off this time?” Corbin shouted over the howling gusts. .

The commotion stopped as suddenly as it started, leaving the forest still and silent as death.

“I will take the hand now,” an old woman’s groaning voice came from behind me.

I whirled around and there she stood, Baba Yaga, in front of the same little cottage as before—that hadn’t been there moments earlier. Even the fence made mostly from femur bones still surrounded it.

“I should have stayed with the car,” Corbin said under his breath.

“I told you, old lady, I don’t have the hand. Talk to the selkie.”

Her grim smile revealed black crooked teeth that poked out haphazardly beneath her giant hook of a nose. “The selkie is no long available for conversation.” The hag’s bright pink tongue ran over her teeth. “But I do have leftovers.”

The legends surrounding Baba Yaga were vast and plentiful, but somewhere amidst the random rumors and facts there was something about her eating people, though I couldn’t remember exactly what. However, it explained the skeletal fence. “Tastes like chicken?”

“Actually, more like fish. I made tacos with a creamy cilantro lime and cabbage slaw. Delightful.”

I shot a glance at Corbin. He mouthed, “What the fuck?” to me. I simply shook my head. “Look, you can’t have the hand. You might as well let us go. We don’t want to hurt an old lady.”

Baba laughed, making the trees sway and the house lift from the ground on spindly little chicken legs that stretched toward the sky, as it let out a long, heart-stopping screech. We might have been in trouble. “Come in,” she said, opening the gate.

“Nope. We’re good.” I slipped the cell phone out of my pocket, praying to the goddess that we weren’t in some magical realm where cell phones were useless. “Really busy today. Maybe we can talk more later.” I found Olivia’s name and pressed send.

I tried to walk away, but vines sprang from the forest floor and wrapped around my legs. The harder I yanked, the stronger and thicker they became. Corbin had similar struggles. Olivia didn’t answer. The vines trapped my hands, squeezing the cell phone from my grip and crushing it. Shit, shit, shit.

“Look, witch, I get that the sekhmet took something from you, but your beef is with her not me. I’m happy to walk away from this.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said. I sent up a silent prayer to Olivia. She was a guardian. I didn’t need technology to call her.

“This isn’t my problem,” he shot back.

“If you did not wish to be judged then you should not have come through the door.” A broom appeared in Baba’s right hand and a butcher knife in the other. “If you will not return the hand to me, I will have to take another.” She held the broom out straight in front of her, between the two of us. It wobbled and shook then snapped toward Corbin. Baba nodded. “You will do, vampire.”

“Femi,” he said.

“It’s not my problem,” I mocked him, the vines cutting off blood flow to my feet. If struggling made them tight, then maybe giving up would loosen them. I went completely limp, but still the vines tightened.

The forest beside me filled with light, making the vines shrivel and wither. Olivia appeared in the center of it. Baba released Corbin’s hand and squared off against her, as I broke free from the binds.

“Neither is human, guardian. You have no authority here,” Baba said.

Olivia nodded, not taking her eyes off of her. “Yet, here I am.”

Baba shrugged her thick, twisted shoulders, and raised the broom again. The wind ripped across the forest, creating a wall of leaves, debris, and who knows what else that raced toward us. Dirt pelted me and the leaves nearly blinded me. I pulled out a knife and struggled to get to Corbin. Olivia closed her eyes and held her arms out. Light covered all of us, but it did nothing to stop the wind. Baba, though, anticipated her reaction. The instant Olivia projected the light out in front of her, Baba was to her back, boney fingers lashing out to grab her.

As soon as she touched Olivia, however, Baba jerked back, hissing. “You are no guardian. You have been marked by him.”

Olivia turned, unfazed. “I am not an enemy you want to have. Femi and Corbin are helping me. They are under my protection.”

The old witch’s lips drew back, but she gave her assent, freeing Corbin and letting the wind fade into nothing. “My memory is long, sekhmet. She will not always be here to protect you.”

“Looking forward to it,” I said.

She grunted, went inside the gate and closed it, and everything disappeared.

I didn’t bother to hide my cockiness. Sure she had the upper hand this time, but the next, I’d be prepared for her.

“Who was that?” Olivia asked, calm as ever.

“Baba Yaga,” I said. “She’s a crone.”

“She’s more than a crone,” Corbin said. “She has been putting the fear into misbehaving children for centuries. I knew you had the hand.”

I ignored him. “Thanks for the assist.” I smiled at Olivia.

She smiled back. “Does that mean I’m forgiven?”

“No.” I lifted my chin. “Because I haven’t given up hope yet.”

“Femi—”

“No. You have to let me try.”

She sighed, but agreed—and that was the important part.

“Okay. Let’s get Baker back.” I looked around. “Where the hell are we?”

“Not too far out of the city,” Olivia said. “There’s a trail, right over there. Follow it and I’ll go get your car.” She held out her hand for the keys.

It sucked not being able to transport.

****

It was almost dark by the time we reached the address the dragon gave us, and Olivia had no intention of waiting to see if it was a trap. I guess when you’ve already made a deal with Death little things like walking into a setup cease to matter. Corbin chose not to come with us, still being a baby about Baba Yaga almost taking his hand. She didn’t get it, so I didn’t really see the problem.

Olivia and I headed into the meeting spot, a tunnel deep beneath the city, dark and damp and no doubt filled with things that would like to kill us, just like old times. My muscles twitched and my skin hummed with the prospect of a fight. There was nothing like a little brush with an ancient witch with a grudge to get the adrenaline pumping.

“Did you take the hand?” Olivia asked as we walked, the temperature dropping with each step we took.

I pulled it out of my satchel and her nose crinkled. “The person who stole it said the witch was using it to take children. I simply took the bully’s weapon away.”

Olivia linked her arm through mine. “I would have done the same thing. What does it do?”

“When you light the finger tips, it supposedly freezes people and unlocks any door.”

“Which could help us get Baker’s ashes back.”

I nodded. “And the cup.”

“The cup isn’t priority—wait, I think this is it.” She stopped in front of a large metal door with symbols burnt into it.

“How’d you make that leap?” I winked at her as I inspected the door. I didn’t see any obvious traps on it and most of the symbols were protection ruins. I pushed the door open and we peered into a round stone room. It was empty except for a phone on the wall.

Olivia was the first inside. She made a beeline for the telephone and picked it up. “Hello?” she said. She held it to her ear, then hung up. “Nothing happened.”

“Maybe we need to wait,” I said. Leilah didn’t say we had to do or say anything. All she said was to pick up the phone.

“Maybe we’re in the wrong place,” Olivia said.

“I’m normally the one rushing. What’s happening?” I asked.

“Holden is going after Mammon tonight.”

These two would be the death of me. “Good of him to let us know.”

Olivia smiled faintly. “He’s protecting us. He also wants us to hide Charlie.”

I started to say Chuckles would never hurt the kid, but something stopped me. The fire burned in his eyes almost all the time now, and it rose to his skin far too easily, too. I’d thought bringing Olivia would improve things for him, but he only withdrew more. Holden had never been forthcoming, so it wasn’t a leap to think maybe he knew something was happening to him that he wouldn’t be able to control.

“Did you do it?” I asked.

She caught her bottom lip in her teeth. “He wouldn’t hurt her.”

I shrugged. “Are you willing to bet her life on the idea that you know Holden better than he knows himself?”

Olivia shook her head. “No. Let’s go.”

We started for the door when the phone rang, stopping both of us.