Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) (10 page)

“What are you doing here, Dioscuri?!” Thes snarled, lips pulling back to reveal jagged teeth. He lifted his other hand above his head, fingers curled like he was going to rake them across my flesh.

“Me? What are you doing, wolf?” I snapped back as I got ready to call my power. I may not have had the use of Isis and Set, but I still had Apep, and that was more than enough to stop one teenage werewolf, right?

Thes’ eyes widened at my words as composure flowed over him all at once and completely. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. One moment, he was a raging beast barely contained in a human body. The next, he was the picture of serenity.

That’s when I remembered we were surrounded by normal people… normal people who probably didn’t know Thes was a werewolf.

“Lillim,” he said, voice so empty and that it unnerved me. “Perhaps we could have a moment to talk,” he glanced at Connor, “privately.”

“Uh… guys?” Connor said, voice filled with shock as his head swiveled back and forth between us. “Do you know each other?”

“No,” we both said in unison which was, annoyingly, starting to become a thing.

Very slowly, Thes got off of me, careful not to touch my bare skin with his hands as he did so. Behind him, I could see a couple other football players, but they were too close for it to be good. They had that looming, circling intensity that made me think of the time I’d been caught in a werewolf camp after dark. Was the whole football team a pack of werewolves? Surely there had to be rules against that…

“Those your pack mates?” I asked as I got to my feet and brushed myself off. See, I could play it cool.

Thes glanced over his shoulders at them and shook his head minutely. “Lillim,” he repeated, still looking at them. “Privately. Now.”

I was about to reply when the brunette from the bar, the one Connor had called Custody, sashayed up to us and placed one well-manicured hand on Thes’ huge arm, her bright pink nails a startling contrast to his dark, tanned skin.

Her huge brown eyes widened as she glanced from him to me and back again, and for a moment it seemed like they were mentally communicating with each other. “Is there a problem, Thes?” she asked in a voice that reminded me of forced nonchalance. Then she whispered something that sounded like, “should I get the Alpha?”

“No,” Thes said, shrugging her hand off and moving so close to me that the pungent scent of wolf flowed around him like a heavy musk. “Lillim is just Connor’s girlfriend, and she and I need to have a chat,” he added. Had he really just said that I was Connor’s girlfriend? And why did that statement not bother me as much as it should have?

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Connor said, stepping up and grabbing me by the arm, forcibly pulling me away from Thes who loomed over me like a giant hulking ape. “We’re just friends.”

“Connor,” Thes said, his voice a half-snarl. “You don’t understand what she is, who she is.”

This was true, after all. Conner had no idea who I was. He didn’t know that I’d killed people, that I’d done other horrible things. I swallowed, looking away as tears threatened to spill out of my eyes. What would he think of me if he knew? And why did I care so damn much about what he thought?

“I understand fine, Thes,” Connor replied, a strange look spreading across his face. “Look, I know things have been rough since Custody and I…” he trailed off. So they had dated… was that why he had wanted to leave me and go to the bar? Was he using that as an excuse to go talk to her sans me? Oh my god— I was the rebound girl? Was that why he’d dressed me up? To show off for his ex?

“No, Connor, that’s not it at all,” Custody said, damn near pressing herself into him as she tugged on his arm. “You don’t understand. Not even a little. But if you come with me, I’ll explain it all.” I knew right then, I didn’t like her, not even one tiny bit.

“Don’t touch him,” I snapped. She glanced at me, giving me one of those stupid little smirks that popular girls always gave other girls before turning back toward Connor.

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed her by her stupid brown pigtails and flung her with all my magic infused strength. She sailed sideways, crashing into the pool with a splash that sent water everywhere. Power undulated off of me as I unclenched my left hand and little wisps of brown hair floated away on the invisible eddies caused by magic raging around me.

A wolf the size of a horse burst out of the pool, surging forward like a great wave of matted white and black fur that reminded me less of a Dalmatian and more of a strangely painted cow. I brought my hands up in an arc that caught the huge wolf under the snout just as its jaws snapped shut in front of my face. Darkness exploded from the obsidian bangles on my wrist as I hit her. As she careened backward into the pool, the ground beneath us began to shake, pitching like a writhing serpent. Every light around us shattered, and the sky turned black as pitch.

“You dare attack me?” I asked, and my voice wasn’t quite my own. It had a thread of something dark and ancient swimming beneath the surface. “Do you know who
I
am?”

“Yes, I know who you are, Lillim Callina,” Thes said, at least it sounded like Thes but more… feral. “We don’t want any trouble.”

I swung my head toward him and was amazed to see him standing there, clear as day despite the sudden gloom. His eyes glowed with that wolf amber that usually gave me the heebie jeebies.

“Is that so?” I asked, stepping up to him and poking him hard in the chest. “Because I think you do want trouble, wolf. I think you and your beta female over there,” I nodded toward Custody as she pulled herself from the pool, clothes shredded and torn, “are just itching to prove yourselves to someone.”

“Lillim, what’s going on?” Connor asked, voice high-pitched and… afraid.

I turned toward him, and the look on his face stopped me cold. His normally jovial face was blanketed by fear… and it was directed at me. I was about to say something like, well she shouldn’t have touched you when I realized just how ridiculous sounding that was.

Only… only, I couldn’t figure out why it was ridiculous because he was my responsibility. Didn’t he know that? Didn’t Connor realize I needed to protect him? That seemed off… I shook my head and swallowed. No… that didn’t seem right at all.

“Nothing, Connor. Everything is fine,” I said, letting go of my power with a deep breath, and the inky blackness surrounding my bracelets vanished and the backyard lit back up. “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t mean to do all that.”

“If you like,” Thes said, taking a step toward me, palms up in that ‘I surrender’ motion. “I will go get the Alpha.”

“I don’t want to speak to your Alpha,” I said. “I was just caught off guard.” I dropped my gaze, staring at my feet in my pretty shoes Connor had bought me and felt a blush rise across my face. How embarrassing this must be for him. He brings a new girl to his friend’s party, and she starts a fight with the host and throws his ex-girlfriend in the pool.

When I looked up, there was a strange look on Thes’ face. He inclined his head toward me and sniffed, his nostrils flaring outward. “You don’t smell right,” he said, voice deep and gravelly.

“What?” I asked as all the broken lights flickered to life, casting crimson light across the pool so that it looked like it was filled with blood.

“Bwah ha ha ha.” The sound of one of those off-kilter evil laughs rippled down across the backyard from the top of the house, strangely thick and curdled like old milk. I spun toward it to see the magician from Magic Eaters standing there in a blue-sequin costume, complete with kabuki mask and top hat.

“Hello and welcome,” he said, flinging his arms wide, one white-gloved hand clutching his gnarled branch, the other empty. “To the show of a life time.” He leapt from the top of the house and landed on the surface of the pool like it was as solid as cement. The water rippled out around him in a series of tiny waves that washed up over the stone sides.

I glanced from him to Thes, about to ask him what was going on because it was his party, but he looked even more confused than I felt. If he didn’t know what was going on in his own house, at his own party…

“Who are you?” Custody murmured, arms still wrapped around herself to cover her most vital bits, but oddly, she didn’t really seemed concerned by her lack of clothing. Then again, she was a werewolf. They never really had a problem with nudity. Was that because shifting tended to destroy their clothing?

“I’m,” the magician stepped onto the stone from the water and dropped into a low bow in front of her, “the magician.”

“Creative,” I murmured as Connor went rigid next to me. He toppled backward, face slack and empty as he hit the ground. I swung my gaze back toward the magician to see him swinging his gnarled staff in a circle above his head. All around us people had toppled to the ground, unconscious so that only Custody, Thes, and I were left standing.

“Mundanes,” the magician said, his mask smiling eerily. He whirled around in a flourish of blue sequin coattails. “My show is not for mundanes.”

“You move right,” Thes whispered, hands clenched into fists next to me. His words were so quiet that I didn’t realize what he had said until he leapt forward. His arms transformed into huge ape-like appendages with wicked black claws as he flew through the air, lashing out at the magician.

There was a sudden pause, as if time had stopped, and Thes was flying backward in a spray of crimson. His jersey melted as a gout of blue flame faded away. The magician cocked his head toward me and inclined his hat very slightly. “Recognize that, Miss Callina?” he asked, and my blood went as cold as ice.

I recognized that all right. That blast of flame was something Caleb would have done. And the stopping time thing? That had Blue Prince written all over it. Had this magician found some way of harnessing Caleb’s powers, Blue Prince and all? No… that was impossible. No one could harness the Blue Prince. Even Caleb, who hosted the ethereal god, couldn’t control him.

Thes hit the ground next to me like a sack of potatoes. He moved, rolling onto his hands and knees as the smell of charred flesh and hair filled my nose and made my stomach slosh.

“What have you done with Caleb?” I cried, narrowing my eyes at the magician. The bangles around my wrists began to leak black smoke into the air.

“Done with Caleb?” the magician asked, tapping his chin with one slender finger. “Why the same thing I’m going to do to you. I’m going to eat you.” A grin spread across his mask like a distorted painting of a mischievous clown.

“Lillim, you’re the Dioscuri. Do something,” Thes croaked, voice strained as he tried to get to his feet.

“Yeah Lillim, do something,” Custody called, and instead of being mocking, she was one hundred percent sincere sounding.

I swallowed, my hands going to my hips to grab hold of Shirajirashii… only I didn’t have the weapon anymore because Lang had destroyed it beyond all repair and instead of trying to fix it… I’d what? Played house with Connor who was now lying unconscious on the ground beside me?

“She can’t stop me,” the magician said. “Maybe before, but now… now I’ve eaten a small ‘g’ god.” He snapped his fingers and flame lit up all around us, flashing through the air like energetic fireworks before dying away in a flare of light that left me half-blind. Spots danced before my eyes as he strode up to me and placed the tip of his tree branch against my chest.

“Goodbye,” he said, blue light streaming off his staff. I reached out to try and do something, what I’m not sure, but something nonetheless, when Thes slammed into me, lifting me off my feet. We crashed to the ground next to Connor as blue light exploded from the tip of the magician’s staff.

The magician looked at me and shrugged. “I’m not a picky eater,” he said and flung his hat into the air. The top hat grew huge and imposing over the top of us. The inside of it glittered like a million purple stars as a whirlwind of force came down on top of me. In the time it took me to blink, it pulled me into the air like I was a feather.

I reached out, grabbing onto Thes for support and realized, much to my horror, he was floating too.

“Damn,” he said as we were sucked into the hat, and the world went all sorts of sideways.

Chapter 10

I wasn’t sure how we’d ended up where we were since we’d been sucked into the magician’s hat. Evidently, it had been a portal to somewhere because the sky above us was littered with cotton candy pink stars that burned so brightly, I had to shield my eyes every time I looked up into the near-perfect blackness above. Worse still, every direction was filled with miles and miles of high stone walls. The few times I’d tried to climb the slick blue stone, the walls had actually grown so that no matter how high I climbed, I was always halfway up.

That was it. Miles of blue stone and pink stars. It would have been pretty if it didn’t have the desolate hopeless feeling of being stuck in an unending desert.

“I feel like we’re going in circles,” Thes said as he adjusted the still unconscious Connor over his shoulder for like the millionth time. Still, I was glad he had offered to carry him because, well, I didn’t really want to carry him.

“I heard you the first fifty times,” I said, sighing. “I don’t see how that’s possible. We’ve done nothing but make random turns down even longer hallways.”

“Exactly,” Thes said, shifting so that he could show me his watch. The number on it read 15,012. “We’ve walked almost 10,000 steps since we got here.”

“Is that a pedometer?” I asked, looking from the watch to him and back again. “You’re a werewolf. Your metabolism is off the hook, already. Why the hell are you wearing a pedometer?”

“I like having a device that lets me know just how lazy I am,” he said with a shrug. “That’s not the point. The point is we’ve walked a couple miles now, and I still feel like we’re going nowhere. And as you so bluntly put it, I’m a werewolf. I almost never feel lost.”

“Oh?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Is that a wolf thing?”

“Yes,” he replied and turned his face away from me, blushing. “Also…” he swallowed hard. “Sorry for being such a jerk to you earlier. I’ve never actually met a Dioscuri before. It was a little scary.”