The Book of Blood and Shadow (44 page)

There were no pictures of Max.

We had dropped our hoods to paw through the treasure trove, so when the door swung open, the man with slender hands and white-blond brows—who looked like he was only a few years older than us and, in another life, could have been a real librarian, in charge of a book collection rather than a murder plot—knew us for exactly what we were. The enemy.

He snapped something in rapid Czech and, because Adriane was the closest, grabbed her wrist, swung her into his arms, and braced one hand on her head and the other on her shoulder. “Tell me what you do here,” he said in halting English when the Czech drew no response, “or I break her neck.”

Adriane went pale.

Eli, who had been on the other side of the room when the
Hledači
burst in, crept slowly along the wall, out of sight, toward us, but still too far away to stop the angry wrenching of muscle and snapping of bones, if it came to that. He drew his knife.

The
Hledači
snatched the phone from Adriane’s hand and flung it against the stone floor, grinding his heel into the cheap plastic casing until it split. It didn’t seem to matter much. Evidence wouldn’t help us if we never lived to use it.

“Let her go,” I said. Not pleading, but ordering.

When I spoke, his eyes met mine and widened.
“Vyvolená,”
he whispered.

“That’s right.
Let her go
.” I couldn’t believe the imperious voice coming out of my mouth.

“And this is the other,” he said, turning to Adriane, who was still immobilized by his grip, “the friend of the chosen one.” He pressed his lips to her ear and whispered something—and whatever it was made her draw in a sharp breath and go even paler than before. “I will not harm the
vyvolená
or her people,” he said aloud, and let her go.

Adriane flew toward me, and in the same moment, moving so fast it seemed like he wasn’t moving at all, Eli was across the room. He seized the
Hledači
from behind and raised the knife to his throat. “No screaming, understand?”

“
Ano
,” the man said. “Yes.” His eyes were still locked on my face.

“Adriane, get the door. Nora, find something to tie him up with.”

We used his shoelaces. While Eli held the knife steady at the man’s throat, I yanked his wrists behind his back, looped the laces around once, twice, focusing on the small hairs sprouting from the knuckles and the grubby, broken nails. These hands might have held down Chris, I thought. Trapped him in place as the knife slipped in.

These hands might have forced Max over the side, into the water.

I pulled the knot tight, tight as I could. The laces bit into his flesh. Good.

“What did he say to you?” Eli asked Adriane.

She shook her head. “I don’t know,” she whispered, like she couldn’t draw enough breath to speak. “It was Czech.”

“What did you say to her?” Eli asked the
Hledači
.

The
Hledači
said nothing.

“Not feeling chatty? Good. Because now we’re all going to
walk out of here nice and quietly, and if you make a sound, or do anything to alert any of your friends, I’m going to shove this knife straight into your kidneys.
Oddělám tě na ulici a vykuchám tě jako rybu
. Got that?”

The man nodded.

“You want to take him
with
us?” I said.

“We can’t stay here. Too risky. But we need information, and we need evidence, and our new friend broke the camera. So grab as many files as you can stuff under your robes. I’ll grab
him
.”

Adriane’s face was still emptied of color. But she didn’t argue, and neither did I.

“You walk in front,” Eli said. “I’ll follow behind. With the knife. And just to make sure our friend doesn’t get any bright ideas—”

The knife flashed. A narrow slash of red streaked across
Hledači
scalp. Eli’s hand slapped over his mouth just in time to muffle the scream.

“What did you
do
?” Adriane said in a choked voice as a curtain of blood streamed from the gash. The man blinked wildly and flung his head back and forth as rivulets of red flowed into his eyes.

“It’s shallow, but it should keep him blind and docile at least until we get him out of here,” he said.

“You know this because?”

“Saw it in a movie. Trust me.”

Adriane looked away. But I watched the blood cloud his eyes and, again, wondered if those eyes had watched Chris’s blood pool from his body, watched and then turned away and let him die.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I said. But as the
Hledači
gasped with pain, I felt it growing inside of me: a smile.

9

The room we found was five flights up, rented by the hour. I’d seen enough
Law & Order
episodes to imagine what it was usually used for, but if I hadn’t, its multicolored stains and moist, overripe perfume would have given it away. It stank of sweat and sex. The three of us had easily managed to half walk, half drag the
Hledači
out of the Star Summer House, down two empty blocks, and up the decrepit staircase. The man sleeping on the stairs didn’t even stir when we stepped over him.

A tattered gray shade blocked the only window. A single bare ceiling bulb cast more shadows than it did light. Bound to a chair, the
Hledači
was gagged by a pillowcase Eli had stuffed into his mouth. It seemed like overkill. The room delivered its message from every inch of peeling paint and rotting floorboards: Even if anyone could hear you scream, it was a sure thing no one would care.

Eli paced, holding the knife he’d promised not to use again. He spoke in Czech, firing rapid questions, then pulled out the gag.

The man pressed his lips together.

“Mluv!”
Eli shouted.

“I speak to the
vyvolená
,” he said, in halting English. “Not to you.”

“Nemusíš se rozhodnout,”
Eli snapped.

I stepped forward. “The
vyvolená
, that’s me, right? So here I am. Speak.”

“They will come.”

“No one’s coming for you,” Eli said.

“Not for me. For
vyvolená
. You will not stop them.”

“Actually, we will,” I said. “And you’re going to help.”

“I respect the
vyvolená
,” he said. “You will lead us to the light.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked. “What are they planning to do once they come for me?”

“You will lead us to the light,” he repeated.

“Let’s say I’m not interested in doing that. What’s it going to take to get you to leave us alone?”

“We can pay,” Adriane said. “A lot.”

“We need only
vyvolená
,” he said.

“And the rest of the
Lumen Dei
,” I said. “There’s not going to be any light without that, right? So if it stays hidden, you’re screwed, and you don’t need me.”

“We will all always need you.”

“We brought you here to help us,” Eli said. “If you can’t do that, we’ve got no use for you.” He fingered the knife, running a thumb along the blade. “Think your friends will be jealous when you get to meet God face to face? You don’t need a machine. Only this.” He raised the knife.

“You will not harm me,” the
Hledaši
said.

“So where’d you get that nasty cut?”

“You stand so far away,” the
Hledači
said. “Do you fear me?”

Eli crossed the room in three swift steps. His blade slashed down, stopping just short of piercing the man’s flesh. “Do you fear me?”

The man threw his weight forward, tipping the chair onto its front legs, and snatched a handful of Eli’s shirt, yanking it down so hard it exposed the dark tattoo over his heart. Eli twisted out of his grip.

The
Hledači
spit in his face.

“You are a child,” he said. “But you are still scum. You will never stop us.”

“Nora. Adriane. You should leave now,” Eli said, circling the
Hledači
. “You don’t want to see this.”

Maybe I had known it would end here. I was probably
supposed to care. “We agreed.…” But the objection died on my lips.

“He knows things,” Eli said. “He’s going to tell us what they are.”

“Oh yes, I know many things. I know what you are.
Kolik toho vědí? Co když jim řeknu všechno?
”

“What’s he saying now?” I asked.

“Trust me,” Eli said. “Leave.”

“Stay,” the
Hledači
jeered. “I have many gifts for you.”

“We’re leaving,” Adriane said, pulling me out the door, and I let her, because closing the door behind us meant we weren’t a part of it, whatever it would be. Our hands were clean.

10

No one screamed.

Muffled voices, thuds, scratches, breaking glass.

A dark stain blotted out most of the hallway ceiling, bloody against the rust-colored walls. Just water, I told myself.

“How long do we wait?” Adriane said.

I shrugged.

“What do you think he’s doing in there?” she said.

“Do you care?”

“No.”

11

Eventually.

“Eli?”

I knocked harder. “Eli?” No answer.

No sounds at all from behind the door.

I turned to Adriane. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m still wishing we had a gun.”

“I’m going in,” I said.

She spread her arms wide:
Be my guest
. Then she pulled out a car key that fit a Mercedes parked four thousand miles away, gripping the jagged silver like it was the world’s smallest knife.

“Seriously?”

“Told you that self-defense class would come in handy one day.”

“Actually, you told me the only hard part was pretending to pay attention while you drooled over Coach Gorgeous.”

“You know I’ve always been good at role-play.” She raised the key. “Just remember: Aim for the soft tissue. Or the balls.” She sang tunelessly, “ ‘Eyes, throat, nose, groin, that’s the way you make ’em scream.’ Coach Gorgeous wasn’t great with rhymes.”

I opened the door.

The chair was empty. The window was broken. Eli lay on his stomach, face turned toward us, eyes closed. Forehead bloody.

I couldn’t breathe.

Adriane dropped to his side, and a beat later, I followed her, lips forming the word
please
even as I hated myself for thinking it, because if wishes or prayers or whatever hadn’t saved Max, or Chris, or Andy, I didn’t want them saving him. And yet:
Please
.

“Pulse,” Adriane said, fingers at his throat.

We turned him over, watching his chest rise and fall. Adriane called out his name, then slapped him.

“Adriane! Don’t.”

She slapped him again. Nothing. “You want to carry him out? Or leave him here? Or maybe just hang around until our new friend shows up with reinforcements?”

“Eli!” I shouted. “Wake up!”

His lids fluttered, dropping shut again for a moment, then opening to reveal dazed saucer eyes. He blinked slowly, twice, and groaned. “He got away.”

“He hasn’t lost his grasp on the obvious,” Adriane said. “That’s got to be a good sign.”

“Can you stand?” I took his arm. He let me help him into a sitting position.

“He hit me with something.” Eli rubbed the drying blood on his forehead. “I’m okay. Just”—he tried climbing to his feet, then thought better of it—“give me a minute.”

“We may not have a minute,” I said. “They know we’re here—”

“How did he get free?” Adriane asked.

“I don’t … He just did,” Eli said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Let him rest for a second,” I told her.

“It doesn’t seem a little strange to you?” she said. “The guy’s about to spill his guts, Eli kicks us out of the room, and next thing you know, he’s gone?”

“Right. I untied him, threw him out the window, then whacked myself in the head. Does that sound about right?”

“For all I know, you sliced and diced him and stuffed him in the closet.”

Eli looked around pointedly at the four bare walls and distinct lack of hiding places.

“Or, fine. Under the bed. Out the window. Wherever. Makes as much sense as him magically untying himself.”

Eli stood. “I’m okay now. Let’s get out of here.”

Adriane didn’t argue. In fact, she didn’t say anything as we raced down to the street and wound a convoluted route through Prague, returning to the hostel only after we were sure no one had followed us.

“We’re going to our room now,” Adriane told him when we
made it back to what now passed for home. “And we’re locking ourselves in until we figure out what to do next. Don’t call us, we’ll call you, and all that. Come on, Nora.”

“I’m on your side,” he said. “You know that. Nora, you know that.”

“We made a mistake,” I said. “It was a stupid plan.”

“So we make another one.”

“No,
we
make another one,” Adriane said. “When we need you, we’ll let you know.” She turned and started for the dingy staircase, apparently assuming I would follow her.

“Nora—” With the black eye and dented forehead, he looked sweetly pathetic, like a cartoon puppy with a torn ear. I hesitated. Adriane didn’t know everything.

But then, neither did I. And whose fault was that?

“You should rest,” I told him. “Then we’ll talk.”

“Just take this,” he said, and pulled a creased page out of his pocket. “I found it in the library. Before the guy showed up.”

“What is it?”

“Proof I’m trying to help you,” he said.

I accepted the offering but didn’t bother to look at it. “Anything else you want to tell me?”

“About what?”

“What happened in that room. Or anything … about anything. About you. You want to prove something to me, try starting with some answers.”

His back straightened. “You’re right. I should get some rest.”

“Right.”

“I am trying,” he said.

“Try harder.”

12

Don’t think about Max
.