Paladin (Graven Gods 1) (21 page)

“Couldn’t they just shield him?” I asked.

“Yeah, but most of the Valakans don’t have the juice to keep me from sensing them,” Paladin said. “Valak or his elder priests might be able to, but not anyone with less power.” He frowned. “Let me search Moss’s memories, see if there are any other possibilities.”

I grimaced in distaste as he picked through the mental sewage that was the dead thug’s memories. Finally an image floated to the surface, and Paladin locked onto it. “There’s a warehouse they use, over on Industrial Avenue.”

“Yeah, I think I know the one you mean. Used to be Bomar Manufacturing, right?”

“That’s the one.”

“Uh.” A contemplative silence ensued before Ulf-Mark observed, “Strikes me it would also make a dandy place for a trap.”

“If they’re there, it probably is a trap. But unless they’ve got a hell of a lot of manpower, it won’t do the bastards any good against the two of us.” And if the Valakans did have enough manpower -- or priests with the juice to do the job -- Paladin would be able to sense them.

“Unless it’s Valak himself,” I pointed out.

“We don’t have a hell of a lot of choice, either way,” Calliope replied, hanging her big black muzzle over my shoulder. “They’ve got the boy. If we don’t get him back, they’ll wipe his mind so one of their bastard gods can seize control of him.”

“But he’s only fifteen. Wouldn’t that burn out the body?”

“Depends on who they put in it,” Paladin said. “Somebody with my power level, yeah. A low-level godling in a body without that much talent might consider the kid a trade up.”

“Either way, Dave is just as dead,” Ulf-Mark said grimly.

I remembered the boy’s incandescent joy when I’d presented him with that Vampire Nighthawk Magic card I’d found at a flea market. Then there were those fun nerd arguments, like who’d win a fight, Batman or Superman, or who was the better
Enterprise
captain, Kirk or Picard. Sometimes I took the opposite position just for the pleasure of listening to his passionate arguments. He was just so bright and funny.

And those bastards intended to snuff out his humor, intelligence and joy. His loss would gut his mother. Though I’d never been a parent, I knew all too well the agony of losing those you loved.

What’s more, the same fucker was responsible. I’d be goddamned if Valak was going to get away with it. Not this time.

“
I’m going to kill him
.”

“
We’re going to kill him
,” Paladin corrected coolly.

Valak had destroyed my life. It was time I returned the favor.

Up until the Nineties, Graven had been a textile town, as so many in the South had been. Then the entire industry had pulled up stakes and headed to China, leaving the city gutted of jobs and hope. But in the past decade, manufacturing had begun to trickle back into the town as auto manufacturers discovered the South’s low wages and nonunion work force.

Those businesses tended to locate out beyond the city limits, where property and taxes were cheaper. The city’s industrial heart had been left to fall into decay, helped along by vandalism and arson. Nothing burned like a textile mill; airborne cotton dust is almost as explosive as gunpowder.

Once the old warehouse had been filled with thousands of bales of locally manufactured fabric. Now its windows were boarded up and sprayed with gang tags.

We drove past the warehouse in eerie silence, thanks to the shielding spell Paladin had cast to mute the sound of the Mustang’s distinctive rumble.

“Yeah, they’re in there,” Paladin said. “I can feel them.”

“How many?” Ulf-Mark asked. “I make fifteen.”

“Yeah, that’s about right. One higher-level priest. The kid’s not there, though.”

I felt my stomach knot. “How the hell are we going to find Dave?”

Paladin’s grin stretched my lips. The expression felt more than a little vicious. “I’ll just grab one and jerk the information out of his skull while I kill his ass.”

Ulf-Mark parked the car around the corner in an alley, close enough that we could get to it quickly in the unlikely event something chased us.

It was more likely we’d be chasing one of the Valakans.

I opened the door and got out, flipping the seat down for Calliope. She leaped out, soundless as a feather. Ulf-Mark joined us, and we ghosted out of the alley and back around the corner to the warehouse.

Paladin led the way to a fire escape Moss remembered as a possible way in. He gestured up its rusting length to cast a muting spell before reaching up to pull the ladder down. Encased in Paladin’s magic, the fire escape descended smoothly instead of shrieking and rattling.

Calliope scrambled up, paws hooking over the rungs, me at her furry heels. I’d be worried the rickety thing would collapse, but Paladin’s spell reinforced the rusted steel.

Reaching the top, we scrambled over the parapet and moved quietly across the flat roof to the access door.

It was locked of course, but Paladin traced a spell over the knob. It turned in my grip, and the door swung wide. The corridor beyond was pitch black, and I froze for a moment. He gestured, and it seemed the area ahead of me was lit up by an invisible flashlight.

“
They won’t sense us
?”

“
Not until we’re ready to kick some ass that desperately needs it
.”

“
Unless Valak is here
.”

“
Unless, then. In which case, the ass kicking will be a bit more difficult
.”

“
Just a bit
.” My mouth filled with metallic saliva. I clenched shaking hands.

“
Shhh
.” Paladin spilled calm through my body, quieting my anxiety. My fears slid away, leaving the god in all his icy glory. Ready for combat.

“
Yes, I am. Now quiet down, Summer. You’re distracting me
.”

No wonder, given the way my mind kept skittering in panic.

“
Summer. Shut up
.”

How the hell was I supposed to do that? It was one thing to stop talking, but how could I avoid thinking?

“
Focus your attention on sensory impressions
.” The calm of his mental voice was a sharper admonition than cutting words. “
We need to do that anyway
.”

I forced myself to stop skittering and focus on the dark stairwell leading downward.

“
That’s it
,” he murmured. “
That’s it exactly
.”

His praise gave me a warm glow. I paced down the corridor, the others moving like shadows behind me.

We reached a hallway scarcely wider than my shoulders. I looked back to see Ulf-Mark angling his shoulders to walk down it.

We slipped around one corner, then another, alert for any sign of the enemy. My magical senses insisted no one was there, but Paladin’s spell was a vivid illustration of how little that kind of thing meant.

We reached another door, which opened with the same eerie silence. A metal catwalk stretched in front of us most of the length of the building. I stepped silently onto it, and looked down over the railing, scanning the warehouse floor below us. A group of men stood in a rough circle around someone, but Paladin was right, it wasn’t Dave. The Valakans must have him somewhere else.

Fuck. Oh, fuck. Had they started abusing him yet
?

“
They haven’t, or these bastards would be there instead of here
,” Paladin told me.

I slipped forward, counting silently. Thirty men knelt in a circle around a thirty-first. Probably the priest in charge of collecting tribute from this lot -- the life force they stole from their victims, human or Demi.

Cold anger iced my veins, and this time it was as much mine as Paladin’s. He turned and shot the others a quick hard look and threw up three fingers for a countdown.

“
Three
…” Calliope gathered herself, and Ulf-Mark braced a hand on the rail. I did the same as the countdown continued.

“
Two
…”

“
One
!”

We threw ourselves over the railing and plummeted, firing magical blasts as we fell. Five Valakans died before I even hit the ground.

A week ago, I would have expected my legs to break from a fall like that. Now I knew my bones, muscles and ligaments -- my very skin -- was denser and stronger than any human’s. I was Demi, bred for combat.

Around me, our enemies leaped to their feet and charged, moving a hell of a lot faster than you’d expect from guys taken by surprise. Almost as if…

This is a trap
!

“Fuck!” Ulf-Mark and Calliope shouted with me in a chorus of We’re-up-shit-creek!

But there was no time to look around for Valak or any of the elder priests. I had my hands full as it was. Magical blasts sizzled through the air around us as we blocked and dodged. “
Fuck, these guys are
a
hell of a lot more skilled than your average rent-an-acolyte
!”

“
It won’t do them any good
,” Paladin told me. And then there was no more time for anything but staying alive.

I lost track of which of us did what. The world exploded into a blur as I tossed magic with my right hand, shielding with the left, and beating hell out of any target I could in between.

Spinning, Paladin slammed an elbow into one punk’s face so hard, his skull cracked in a crunch of shattering bone. We ducked a knife attack, whirling into a kick that sent another thug flying to land with a boneless thud, dead of a broken neck.

With my left hand, I blocked a flaming magical sphere shooting at my face. Paladin flung up my right in a magical counterattack, tattoos searing my skin as if they’d been drawn in acid. He leaped over a spinning kick, driving my heel into the Valakan’s jaw.

He was so fucking fast. I’d never seen anyone move like that without the help of wires or a whole lot of CGI. I’d had no idea my body was even capable of that kind of speed, or that I could hit so hard. Bones broke and men screamed as Paladin tore through them like a human Cuisinart.

I probably would’ve been sick to my stomach from the damage he did, but there wasn’t time.

Paladin wasn’t the only one inflicting mass casualties. As he spun and leaped, I caught flashing glimpses of Calliope ripping into her fair share with claws and teeth. Ulf-Mark was doing just as much damage, Captain America without the shield.

The Valakans fought back in a weird kickboxing style that resembled French Savate. Human kicks are a hell of a lot more powerful than human punches, but I was still Demi.

Which was why the booted foot that slammed into my head only staggered me back a pace instead of killing me. Before I could shake it off, a half a dozen men jumped me. One plowed another fist in my face while the others grabbed my arms. I tried to jerk loose, but there were too many of them.

The senior priest came out of nowhere, his hand slapping my forehead, something cold and smooth smacking against my skin. Some kind of stone?

“
Oh shit
!” Paladin thought, and his realization sliced through me with sickening horror. “
A storage gem
.”

A spell shot out of the stone, hitting me like a baseball bat in the face. There was just no time to shield as the black power of it ripped through me, reeking with Valak’s magic.

“
Valak. Elder Gods, he’s here
!”

The trap snapped shut, reinforced by the chaos god’s power. Clamping around Paladin, the spell started ripping him out of my brain. It felt like it grabbed a chunk of my forebrain and squeezed it until it ran like Jell-O. The pain was agonizing, far worse than anything I’d ever felt, including regaining my memories. It was even worse than when my mother had transferred Paladin to me to begin with.

“
Paladin
!” I grabbed for him, even as he sank desperate mental hands into me, fighting to hold on. But the spell’s power was too great, and it jerked him right out of my skull.

“
Summer! No! You bastard! You fucki
…” His mental voice cut off, and he was gone.

“
Paaaaaladiiiiiiiin
!” I shrieked as the world went scarlet. Distantly I heard Ulf-Mark shouting, Calliope’s deep panther yowl… and the Valakans bellowing in triumph as they saw me go down.

I was barely conscious of screams, shouts, the sounds of running feet and combat. Somebody flipped me on to my stomach and jerked my hands behind my back. Cold steel clamped my wrists.

But that was only a distant awareness through the thundering, shrieking pain. It felt like I was dying, as if an aneurysm had popped in my brain, leaving my skull awash in blood.

“
Move
!” I screamed at myself. “
Get up, you stupid bitch, or you’re dead! And so is Paladin
!” I had to get him back. They were going to kill him
and
me, and my body was going to end up a mindless meat suit Valak wore to kill those I loved.

But I couldn’t move. My body refused to obey as I spiraled helplessly down into the dark.

* * *

I wasn’t the only one who went down in flames.

I later learned that Valak and every priest and acolyte he had charged us in an overwhelming wave of muscle and black magic.

Ulf-Mark tried to call out to Rizoel and Zanos-James, but his psychic shout was blocked by a shield Valak had raised over the warehouse.

A team of priests surrounded Calliope as she tried to defend my unconscious body, hitting her with blast after blast of magic until she finally went down. Valak and his senior priests swarmed over Ulf-Mark in such numbers that he didn’t have a prayer. Ulf was sucked into a second gem.

* * *

I regained consciousness too late.

Lying on my belly, I managed to lift my head. Calliope lay piled on top of me in house cat form. She’d evidently expended so much power she’d been unable to maintain her combat shape. Now she was bound and helpless in glittering coils of magic.

Mark curled against me on the left, trussed in chains that shimmered with the oily black taint of Valak’s magic. Dave huddled against my right, also bound.