A Toiling Darkness (26 page)

I looked at my small hands, clenching and
unclenching them. The palms of my hands were soft and pink, my
fingers short stubs. They were the hands that were incapable of
protecting Kalen properly. They were too small. And yet if I
protected him as my true self, he would only try to kill me and
that will lead us to a fight I knew I would try to win. Dying was
not an option but killing Kalen was no longer one either. Where did
that leave me when we fought? I didn’t want to find out.

The door opened slowly and then Seeker
walked through it, moving every bit as gawky as I expected. His
limbs were too long, making what normally would have been a
graceful walk clumsy. Kind of like a doe learning to walk for the
first time. I had to stop myself from saying: “You can do it,
Bambi.”

Similar to a blind man, he didn’t look at
me. He didn’t need to. He knew I was in the room, where I was
standing, and probably any decisions I had made in the last five
minutes. He wasn’t blind though, he could still see what was in
front of him. It was up to him if he really chose to look or not.
Eyesight was not one of the senses he relied on.

He paused in front of the chair I had
vacated to pace the room. He turned to the couch and slowly sat
down. His limbs spread right out, taking up the entire couch. He
looked right at home, completely comfortable with where he was. How
he could be so comfortable in such an empty room, I have no
idea.

“Darkness, so quick to visit me, are you
not?”

“You’re the one who decided to pass out
right in the middle of a conversation.”

“Is that what that was? A conversation?”

I frowned. Seeker’s words were sarcastic,
maybe even angry.

“What has your breeches in a twist?” I
asked.

“
My breeches
, as you put it, are in a
twist because the Consort are in the city and even I cannot see
why.”

That was really saying a lot. Seeker has
pride in his power and being the best of the best at what he does.
My heart added an extra beat to its rhythm and I slowly sat across
from him, tucking myself into the big cushion. I felt like it was
going to eat me.

“Have they contacted you?”

He shook his head. “They have not. But they
are asking uncomfortable questions to every being they meet.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Like I have said, I cannot see. Therefore I
cannot tell you. No one knows. It is only speculation right
now.”

Growing irritated, I asked, “Can you at
least tell me who they are.”

“Death.”

That extra heartbeat that came to me at the
mention of the Consort was taken back as my heart tried to
stop.

“No he isn’t,” I said, refusing to even
entertain the words. They just sounded so wrong.

“He is. Has been since the Early Middle
Ages. Why do you think you still live? He keeps you alive.”

I licked my dry lips. “Death hates the
Consort.”

Seeker cocked his head with a small smile.
The bastard was happy to shock me. He was now enjoying himself at
my expense. My anger rose and I had to force myself to sit there.
Seeker’s head on spike was looking like a pretty good idea right
now.

I took a deep breath and released it slowly.
It’s okay. I’ll bring him down a notch in a couple of minutes.

“Maybe he does. What better way to change
the Consort then by joining them?”

“Change them from the inside,” I said out
loud as I thought about it. Death was no pushover, and he was
definitely more dangerous than anyone else who held a position on
the Consort. He made it clear to me when I first met him that he
didn’t believe in what they stood for. There was no one to police
them and it allowed them to get away with too much. Death believed
in democracy, before the concept even existed, and the Consort was
more like a monarchy—their word was law.

“Yes,” Seeker replied. The word came out
more like a hiss, sounding less like a word any human would be able
to say.

I sat quietly, trying to get my brain to
work properly again. To think Death joined the Consort. My earliest
memory of him was from when Ancient Greece still existed. A long
time, I know. He used me to take control of a society just so he
could get a specific high-ranking soul.

And now Seeker was telling me the arrogant
bastard was in the Consort to protect me. I wanted to call bullshit
to his bluff—if only he did bluff.

“What kind of questions are they asking?” I
asked, swallowing my fear and hatred.

“From what I can see they are asking about
some witch.” Something inside me relaxed. As long as it didn’t have
anything to do with me, I’ll be okay, even if it has been thousands
of years since I’ve been in the same city as Death. I worked very
hard at avoiding him.

Seeker tilted his head, considering
something. “You seem more relaxed.”

“Just glad I’m not the focus of their
attention.”

“Oh, you are always the focus of their
attention, like a spoiled little daughter.”

I stilled at his little comment. “What’s
that suppose to mean?”

“You still have not figured it out yet?” He
still held that smug little smile on his face.

I reached the end of my patience with his
cocky ass attitude. He should know better by now. Apparently I was
softening too much if he thought he could treat me like I was some
kind of simple child.

I pushed power into my words and when I
spoke, the lights flickered with each word, hammering in my point.
“You forget yourself, Seeker.” I stood up and stalked over to
him.

His body went still and he just watched me
with fear. I slowly crawled into his lap and he didn’t dare push me
away. He could see it in my expression. He could see the death I
promised him. I knew my eyes were dead, all life out of my body and
I used it to my advantage. Nothing like a child crawling into your
lap, not to cuddle or be held, but to get close enough to kill you.
Even I could taste the bile in his throat. It had a little
aftertaste of life.

I sat back on my thighs and reached up to
his cheek, rubbing it gently. I let my hand make its way back to
his throat. My hand was too small to wrap around his throat, but I
didn’t need to. I could feel his pulse just under his skin, pulsing
blood just under the tip of my index finger.

I leaned into him, my lips just a centimeter
from his temple. I was close enough that if I took in a deep
breath, I would be touching him. The warmth of his skin seeped into
my lips as I stole some of it from him.

Seeker stayed as still as possible. He just
ate recently and now I was stealing those nutrients. It was a
little trick I picked up from Kay. Seeker’s body grew cold. Shivers
started in his arms and in seconds, spread through his entire
body.

“This is just a taste of freezing to death.
Next time you want to play with the top dogs, try to remember that
you’re just a nobody.” I leaned back and broke out into a satisfied
smile. Seeker’s skin was turning blue, his lips grey.
“Understand?”

He nodded and happy with his insistence, I
crawled off his lap. My body was warmer and my belly full from the
life I stole.

“Good. Now, I need to know where a pudgy little
gazelle lives.”

Kalen, with the water behind him and the
moon above him, was stunning. He looked like he belonged in a
painting, the moon as his siren. The moonlight lit him up, creating
an aura of light that wrapped around him. His back was to me as he
stared out into the dark pit of the water. If I didn’t know what
true darkness looked like, I would mistaken the water as such. And
yet, there was still a small shimmer here and there letting me know
that if I dived in, I would swim in water instead of darkness.
Water could be heard as it splashed up against the docks. The whole
scene was very majestic.

I stepped out of the shadows and his body
tensed up. He turned around, eyes scanning the shadows until he
spotted me, and then slowly the tension left his body.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head, his mind apparently not
agreeing with his body. “Nothing.” He scanned the harbor again, his
frown deepening when he didn’t find what he was looking for. “Did
you find where the warlock lives?”

“I did.” I smiled. “Lets go see if we can go
save your little pups.”

Kalen scowled but still followed as I turned
and walked into the city. We were silent, staying as unobtrusive as
possible.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked.

He kept scanning the streets for potential
dangers and I held back a laugh. I knew there were no beings
lurking around the dark near us. If they were, I would feel them as
if they were an extension of myself. As a child, my range was only
a block or two, as my true human self, it would be the whole city.
That was why I knew a human took that child in the park. If Devon
was the mastermind behind it all, it just meant he was using a
human to do his dirty work. It was a very messy thing to do.

“Plan?” I asked again. He finally turned his
attention back to me.

“Find those children and get them out.”

“Simple words.” As if it would be so simple.
“Do you understand what a warlock is?”

“Someone who deals with the devil?”

I shook my head. Not knowing the facts can
get you killed and he knew nothing. “They don’t so much as make
deals with them. They summon the demon and pray to God that they
are strong enough to control them.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“The demon will devour them and they are
free to wander earth until someone strong enough destroys them or
sends them back.” I stopped suddenly and turned to face him. He
took a couple of steps until he realized I stopped.

“What?”

“Some demons need strong sacrifices. Do you
understand what that means?” I observed carefully as he thought
about what I just told him. I saw the very nanosecond when he
finally understood. His power intensified, his pupils expanded,
almost doubling in size, and his face schooled itself carefully
into a mask. I took the small rings of brown around his pupils as a
good sign. He still had some control over himself.

“You think they are all dead?”

I shrugged. “A really high chance, yes.”

He nodded, his movements definite in his
understanding.

We might find all those children dead. For
Kalen’s sake, I hoped at least some of them were alive. His fear
for them wafted off him and mingled with the darkness around us. In
this, failure was not an option for him.

Not bothering to say anything else, I
started walking again, heading east, towards one of the worse
neighborhoods in the entire city. The address Seeker gave me
brought us to a small one-story house. The area was crummy, the
crime rate highest here then anywhere else. It was like the police
have completely forgotten about this six block little section.
People high on drugs littered the streets. Addicts, both young and
old wandered around looking for their next fix. Their age didn’t
matter in this kind of world. Drugs did not discriminate.

“Is he here?” Kalen asked, skeptic of my
information.

“Yeah, the good old gazelle is here.”

Maybe I should promote the loc to a badger
for kidnapping little children incapable of protecting themselves.
Opportunistic little thing too, making use of a human to do all his
dirty work.

Magic raised all the hairs on my body as it
moved through the air. It told me one little important fact. Blood
was spilled. It was just a matter of whose blood.

Kalen swore as he felt the same tickles of
magic that I did.

“Any idea how to go about it?” I asked,
trying to give him leadership. It was his mission after all. Me? I
would just storm right in and hand the loc’s ass over to
himself.

“Sneak in, get a feel for the situation,” he
replied.

“You should already know what’s going on.
He’s already summoning the demon.”

“How long until he completely summons
it?”

“Well, eight kids, so he has to go through a
lengthy little ritual with each sacrifice. I can’t tell how many,
but the total time is probably thirty minutes tops. We need to go
in now.”

“And if he succeeds.”

“With that many kids, a greater demon will
come into our realm. I have had the pleasure of never having to
deal with them and I’d like to keep it like that.” I moved forward,
passing Kalen and cracking open the little door. “Enough
chatter.”

Kalen followed and took lead, his movements
silent and graceful. It was cool to see his stealth mode. I really
couldn’t feel him at all. I carefully drew in the darkness to make
it easier to hide. Not too much in case Devon was smart enough to
set up little magical traps.

From my interactions with him, he seemed
paranoid enough to do just that.

The door opened up to a foyer just as
abandoned looking as the outside. Furniture was set around the
room, old and neglected. Spider webs and dust covered every surface
in existence. The only sign anyone was ever here were the
footprints on the floor. Boot prints with a cluster of smaller shoe
prints led to another door off to the right. As we followed, the
magic grew thicker. Now instead of just brushing up against us, it
pushed against our skin, feeling like a film of grime collecting on
us. Kalen rubbed at his arms, not liking the feeling one single
bit. I had to agree.

Magic for summoning otherworldly creatures
was immensely uncomfortable. It didn’t quite feel like dark magic,
it was more neutral than that, as if the magic could care less what
it was used for, as long as it was used. In a way, that made using
magic more dangerous; more addictive and those that used it were
harder to read. Their intent could go both ways, either for good or
for bad. Maybe that’s why when I met and talked with Devon, he
never stayed on my radar for any kind of threat. For all we knew,
he could just be summoning a unicorn—possible if he wasn’t
sacrificing a group of children.