Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (41 page)

Dino clenched his fists and glared at the handle. The door groaned, slowly opening. A figure stepped through. Dino screamed, rushing blindly forward.

A strong hand gripped his wrist and tossed him back. He hit the wall, and the air rushed from his lungs. Dino collapsed onto his knees and clutched at his chest, gasping for breath.
 

“Now, now, Dino. We’re all friends here. No need to pull punches,” Bentley said.

Dino lifted his chin and saw the wraith casually inspecting the scarab relic in his dark, strong hand. His gaze flicked to Dino, and he flashed the wall of his ivory teeth.

“God, it’s you,” Dino said. He exhaled and leaned back against the wall. “I thought you were a blackjacket.”

“Not quite.”

“Not quite?” Dino asked. He stood, brushing dust from his knees. “What do you mean not quite?”

“You need to get out of here, Dino. Tonight’s the end of the Errand. You never were one of them. Don’t get dusted as one.”

“You’re talking crazy. Is this some kind of trick? Are you Faye?”

Bentley snorted and motioned through the doorway. “Most certainly not, and thank God for that. I’ve got my eye on living a nice, long eternity in this beautiful city. That means making the right choices on who I call my friends. You understand?”

“I think so,” he said, eyes narrowing. “And who exactly do you call your friends these days, Bentley?”

The wraith reached into his shirt pocket. He pulled out a familiar golden band and flipped it to Dino with a wink. Dino caught Zoe’s ring and clenched it tight. He breathed a sigh of relief and smirked, his gaze flicking to meet Bentley’s. “I never suspected you were Wilhelmina’s man.”

“You think I could’ve kept a massive warehouse like that secret without the Spider’s help? She’s been the only thing propping up Faye’s pointless resistance for years. I’ve been told that time’s come and gone. The Spider’s ready to end the charade.”

“And why now, I wonder?” Dino asked, pocketing the ring.

Bentley shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t think anyone in Afterlife truly knows the Spider’s plans but her.” He motioned down the hall. “Time to go. She doesn’t want you dusted for whatever reason, but if you put up a fuss I can take certain liberties.”

“Let me dust Faye, Bentley,” Dino said.

He arched a brow. “You think you can?”

“I know I can. Let me do this, and it’s the last you’ll hear from me. Tell Wilhelmina you dusted Faye, I don’t care. But I need to do this. After all she’s done to me, I need this.”

Bentley chewed on his words for a moment. Then, he relented with a nod, squeezing the scarab relic until it shattered into dark shards that fell to the floor. “Five minutes. Go.”

“Thank you, Bentley. I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me squat. Goodbye, Dino.”

Trails of mist swirled around him as his body transformed into a vortex that vanished from sight. Dino spun, racing down the hall. He passed a smattering of terrified soldiers. He slipped through the thick steel door barricading the command room. He darted by the guards brandishing sabers before Faye’s door and glided through the crack in her door, entering Faye’s quarters.

She paced before the desk while she chewed on her nails. Dino folded his arms and watched her face the enormous map of the city. She searched for something. Answers, perhaps, or maybe a way out of this mess.
 

His ethereal body gathered the smoke curling around him, and he solidified. The lock clicked as he turned it, bolting them inside the room. Dino tried to pity her, but there wasn’t a drop of it left in his heart to spare the woman. Not after all she’d done. Not after her games, her lies, her murders. Mel would be avenged. She had to be avenged.

“They have us surrounded, don’t they?” he asked her.

Faye chuckled. She didn’t face him. “It was only a matter of time I suppose. I’m surprised you didn’t hightail it out of here when you were freed. Who let you out?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“They always loved you more than me. You were the fun one, the one who partied with them, the one who fought with them. I could never understand why. You were never really loyal to our cause.”

“Your cause is lost. The archduke has the city. The fools are either dust or doing their best to forget they were ever in the Errand. My cause isn’t lost, not yet. I need the map, Faye.”

Faye turned, her brow arched incredibly high. “You want the keys to the kingdom? Fat chance, Dino. If I go down, you’re going down with me. I won’t let you run off to the palace and try to take Bone Man yourself.”

“I won’t be alone.”

“You want me to come with you?” Faye laughed, shaking her head. “They’ll never let me leave here alive.”

“I wasn’t talking about taking you.”

Her brows knitted together, then spread apart. “Amber? You plan on running off to find the mortal girl?”

“Faye, only she has the power to stop the archduke. She’s his counterpart, don’t you see? It’s why he wants her so badly, because she’s the only one who can actually end his reign. You want to bring the Soul Assembly back? Well, that road leads right through Amber. Give me the map and let me do this. If it’s what you really want, then you’ll let Amber do what she has to do.”

Commotion erupted beyond the office doors. Dino tensed, heading toward her desk. “The Errand might end tonight, but that doesn’t mean it has to fail. Let me do this. We’ll bring down the archduke once and for all. I get Bone Man, Afterlife gets the Assembly back, and Amber gets to be free of it all. Everyone wins.”

Faye sighed. She reached between her breasts and produced the key, holding it to the light. Dino extended his hand. “Please, Faye. Let’s end this. I’m tired of fighting, aren’t you?”

She smiled sadly and batted her lashes at the key. “It’s been such a long fight.”

Dino stepped closer. “And it doesn’t have to end in tears.”

Faye swallowed. The lump traveled down her silky throat. Dino rounded the desk and stood before her and waited.

Her smile widened, and she laughed. Faye closed her fist around the key and snarled. “You silver-tongued devil. I’ll not be the next pile of dust at your feet like all those other girls. You think I’m stupid? You only came here to get the key from me.”

He barely dodged her dagger’s glimmering blade as it sliced through the air. She jabbed again. Dino slipped into trails of mist, and Faye plowed right through him. “Faye, this is pathetic.”

 
“You’re pathetic! You’re the killer! You killed her, Dino! You took her from me, and now you’ll crush my Errand and have me dust at your feet. I hate you. I
hate
you!”

Faye spun and charged, slashing the dagger wildly at his face. Dino burst into his phantom form and stepped through her strikes. Faye stumbled against the wall. She twisted and pounced on him like a hungry jaguar armed with sharpened steel.

Dino stood still as her strikes met little more than ghostly air. He sighed, whirling around her and reforming. He latched onto her wrist and twisted her around. His knee buried hard in her stomach. She gagged and doubled over. He wrenched the weapon from her hand. “Give me the key. It’s over.”

Faye spit in his face. “It’s not over, Dino. It’s not over by a long shot.”

Her body shifted, features melting and reforming into the grinning, impish visage of Zoe Cardona. Seeing his dusted wife before him hit him harder than any blow and cut deeper than any dagger. The emotions flooded him, weakened his knees and brought tears to his eyes.

“Baby, please don’t hurt me,” she said. “I love you, Dino, don’t let me go. Not again.”

Dino’s heart twisted. He choked down a sob and shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Zoe.”

“Just let go, and we’ll forget about all this. Relax.” Zoe leaned closer. She smelled so sweet, so intoxicating. “I’m here now. I’m with you.”
 

Hot tears streamed down his cheeks. “I’ll never forget you. I love you so much.”

“I know,” she cooed. “And I love you too. We’ll be together, Dino, you and me forever, just like we always wanted.”

Dino took a deep breath and blinked the tears away. “You never loved her, Faye. No one who loved someone would use their face as a weapon. She was a toy to you. She doesn’t deserve this.”

Zoe stepped back. “But, baby—”

“No. You’re not Zoe.” His heart hardened. A rush of rage crashed over him. “She’s dust, and so are you.”

Zoe’s features twisted in a snarl. She lurched at Dino, nails clawing wildly at his face. Dino put all his strength into his arm and rammed the blade into Zoe’s stomach. She screamed, clutching weakly at the dagger’s hilt as she stumbled back. Her body shifted from Zoe to Faye to Amber and then back again so chaotically that she became a gross amalgam of three women, a monstrous deformity that reflected the woman’s twisted soul.

She reached for him as cracks formed across her skin. “I’ll see you in Hell,” she rasped.

Faye’s body crumbled into an ash pile. Dino kneeled, sifting through her remains until his fingers found the key. He pulled it from the pile, blew the dust from it, and retrieved the map from its container.

As he pocketed the map, he noticed Vera’s journal on Faye’s desk. Dino almost left it there, but at the last instant, he swiped it too and stuffed it in his jacket. His body dissipated into grey trails. He took a last look at Faye LaBelle’s remains and turned away. “I’m coming, Amber,” he said, vanishing through the door.

Amber leapt out of the car and tumbled into Ms. Flannery’s driveway. She raced for the front door as Jason stumbled into the bright night. “Amber, wait up!”

“Get over here! Now!”
 

She tried the front door. The bolt held it fast. Amber beat on the wood, screaming Ms. Flannery’s name.
 

Light flashed on in the upstairs window. Amber almost cried with relief. “Ms. Flannery! Please let us in!”

She looked behind her. In the distance, down the lane, she thought she saw a figure in black dart beneath a pale streetlight. “God, he’s coming. Ms. Flannery, hurry!”

Jason joined her at the door, beating on it with the heel of his palm and calling the woman’s name. More lights came on as the Amber’s neighbor worked her way through the second floor of her home to the first.

“She’s so freaking slow,” Jason rasped. He glanced over his shoulder and looked to Amber. “You’re in some deep shit, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea.”

The front door cracked open. Ms. Flannery appeared through the space, the metal chain bolting the door taught above her nose. “Amber? How did you get out of the hospital?”

Jason cleared his throat and waved. The old woman frowned. “You’re a bad influence, boy. Her mother had her put in there for her safety
and
ours. How dare you go against her advice. I’m calling the police.”

“No!” Amber grabbed the door before Ms. Flannery could close it. “Please, you have to believe me. We’re not safe here. We’re being hunted, and he’s nearly here. I have to get to the mirror in your basement.”

“My husband’s old mirror? Why ever for? Amber, you’re not making sense. Are you on drugs? You’re on drugs again, aren’t you? Oh goodness, this is just awful.”

“Ms. Flannery, I’ll explain everything if you would just let us inside.
Please
. We’re in danger, and we need your help.
I
need your help.”
 

Her gaze softened, her lips slowly parting. She sucked in a breath and shook her head. “They said you might do something like this. I’m sorry, dear, but no. I’m calling the police. This is for your own good.”

“You don’t know what’s best for me! You never did. Now let. Me. In!”
 

Amber’s blood heated to a boil. She clenched the door and yanked, and it exploded from the hinges in a spray of splinters. Ms. Flannery shrieked and stumbled back.
 

Amber stomped inside, seething rage, her fists shaking. “You never cared about me. You never cared about my life. You’re just some meddling, gossipy old—”

“Amber!”

Jason’s voice jerked her from her rage. She unclenched her fists and blinked at the woman whimpering on the floor as a hot, sticky silence settled between them.

Amber swallowed the lump in her throat and slapped a hand against her chest. She took a step toward her neighbor and slowly extended her hand. “Ms. Flannery, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. It wasn’t me.”

Ms. Flannery recoiled like Amber might hit her. “Please take whatever you want, just don’t hurt me! I won’t fight you.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” Amber whispered.

Ms. Flannery squeezed her eyes shut and froze like a fawn in tall grass that just heard a twig snap. Amber bit her lip and retracted her helping hand.

“C’mon,” Jason said, pulling her away.

Amber nodded and headed for the basement door. “Get upstairs, Ms. Flannery. There’s a man in a mask coming for me. He’ll be in here any second. Tell my mom … Tell Chris … Tell them that I love them, and that I’m sorry.”

Ms. Flannery scrambled to the stairs and pounded up the dark flight while Amber and Jason sprinted for the door. But before she opened it, Amber grabbed her friend’s shoulders and pulled him close. “I can go the rest of the way. It’s too dangerous for you now. Go home and forget about me.”

“The hell I will! I’m not leaving you.”

“Where I’m going is too dangerous for you. I can’t ask you to come. It’s not—”

“Amber, shut the hell up. If I wanted to bail, I would’ve bailed a long time ago. Whatever this is, I’m not leaving you, and I’m not letting your run off without me again. Okay?”

“But—”

“I’m not. Now we can either go downstairs or we can stand here and wait for your masked murderer friend. Which one you want to do?”

Amber sucked a breath through her nose. She wanted to argue, to push him away, but she knew he would never leave her willingly. “Fine. But remember I warned you.”

She latched onto Jason’s hand and pulled him downstairs. They fumbled and stumbled through the shadow-drowned clutter of Ms. Flannery’s basement until she found the light. The bright bulb in the low ceiling flared to life, illuminating trails of dust swirling through the air. The mirror stood in its corner, watching, waiting.