Run the Day (7 page)

I held my breath, my power, and as I did, reality bent. The gentlest wave of distortion spread out into creation when I exhaled. The lines on the table flared a color that was all colors, the haze in the tin shimmering and solidifying. Stars blossomed before my eyes and my head spun, then I dropped back into the normal spectrum to see my work. There on the table sat a full tin of dark brown coffee.

Behold my power and tremble ye mortals, coffee ex nihilo.

"There. Happy?" I turned to look at Hack; he was looking at me with his arms folded over his chest and a small smile on his face.

"Not bad, guess you haven't forgotten everything," Hack said. "I suppose now I owe you some answers."

"You're damn right. Now have a seat and start talking, old man."

I picked up the coffee and went over to the derelict electric coffee maker hiding in the shadows of the counter to begin the blissfully mundane ritual of making a fresh pot. I'm pretty sure Hack couldn't have cared less about a hot cup, he just wanted to gauge my abilities since the last time we'd seen each other. Before he left, a working like that, physically recreating a memory, would've taken me substantially longer to pull off, and a lot more energy. I'd gotten better since then, more efficient, at harnessing and manipulating magic.

"I'd love to Tommy, but not with him here." Hack looked across the table at Swift as he spoke.

For his part, Swift sat motionless opposite him, his face neutral and eyes unreadable behind his sunglasses. But you could feel the tension building between them, like the pressure in the air right before a lightning strike.

"All right, we'll start with that." I pulled a mug down from the cabinet and smacked it onto the countertop. Hack and Swift both turned to look at me as I spoke, "I've known you a while now Swift, and out of professional courtesy I've never dug into your business, but that shit earlier, with the light, and the burning, and the whatever the fuck you are...It scared the willies out of me. The willies. I'd appreciate some clarification."

The two of them sat looking at me like I'd grown a second head, I began tapping my foot impatiently, waiting for one of them to start talking. Swift looked distinctly uncomfortable, turning to stare down at the table top when Hack looked at me smugly, shiny blue eyes flashing.

"You ain't got much sense, do you? He's Malakhim," Hack said like that explained everything. Swift shifted in his seat.

"An angel? Swift's a lot of things but he's no damned angel. Besides, the Jehovah Sentience fragmented into splinters centuries ago. He's not...schizophrenic enough to be an angel," I said.

Hack was about to speak when Swift looked up and took off his glasses, revealing his eyes had become the empty white voids I had seen earlier. Fantastic, I was officially in a room full of guys with freaky inhuman eyes and questionable intent. Hack snapped his mouth shut and half-rose out of his seat, but Swift raised a hand and turned to look at me. What little light that was in the room began to...blossom, growing and spreading until the whole kitchen was filled with an otherworldly radiance as Swift stood.

"Malakhim is only one of the names the Children of Dust have given us across millennia. We do not serve the Crippled God; we are messengers of entities that pre-date this iteration of reality. Know that I mean you no harm, Thomas, and be content. Question no further, for your own safety, and your sanity. Had I wished for your destruction, you'd have as much hope stopping me as an ant standing against the sun. The old vessel knows this to be true; it is why he fears me." Swift's voice rang like a bell that vibrated in my bones.

It scared the living shit out of me

.

Hack had risen to his feet, a nimbus of flickering light growing around his upraised hands, his eyes burning like flares. As much as some sick little part of me wanted so badly to see the two of them go head-to-head, I was pretty sure that would end very, very badly. I did the first thing that came to mind and slung the freshly brewed pot of coffee across the kitchen to go crashing into the table. Scalding liquid and glass flew everywhere, but both Hack and Swift leapt back, turning to look from each other to me with two pairs of unsettling eyes.

"Knock it off, the both of you." I came around the counter and looked at the both of them like bad children; I even had my hands on my hips. "Not in my house, damn it. This is venturing dangerously close to a whole new realm of crazy that I'm not prepared to deal with."

For a moment Hack and Swift just stared at me and I felt like all the air had left the room and I was standing at ground zero, waiting for the ominous whistle of impending nuclear destruction. Hack's eyes dimmed, the color slowly returned to Swift's and I took a shallow breath. The two turned to look at each other and gave a mutual nod, a slight dip of their chins.

"Hack, level with me, what the hell's going on? I've come closer in one day to taking a dirt nap than I have in years. Too much shit's flying precariously close to the fan for it to all be coincidence, and your letter was chock full of doom and gloom." I felt more exhausted at that moment than I had all day.

I revised my earlier estimate; I was going to be dead before noon.

"I'm going for lunch. I'll be back." Swift snagged his sunglasses off the table, instantly looking more human, like those mirrored lenses were holding something in. Without another word, he ducked out of the kitchen.

"Dangerous company you're keeping these days, boy," Hack said.

"He's helped me out of some rough spots before. He makes a good meat shield and has a knack for dismantling things," I said, staring at the mess I'd made. Unfortunately, I didn't know any fantastical methods for making coffee explosions disappear. I ducked into the pantry to retrieve a broom and rags, "You're deflecting. Why'd you come back, Hack? What's going on?"

"Didn't you read that blasted email? The end of the damn world, that's what," Hack spoke slowly, "Things that have been asleep are starting to get restless, and they're pushing their influence out into the world. The Sleeper's trying to wake up, and its agents are working to bring it over."

I had no idea what that meant, and it did nothing to put me at ease. It did shed a bit of light on the Libro Nihil's supposed appearance in town, though. A book reputed for containing the secrets of breaching the membrane between worlds would have every cult in the tri-county area on the hunt.

"What the hell is the Sleeper?"

"An Entropic, the worst possible kind of trouble. An avatar of one of the prime universal forces, it's the embodiment of chaos and death." Hack's deadpan delivery really did it for me. "The thing's been asleep for centuries. I don't know what got it stirring, but I felt it shift in its sleep all the way up in Washington. If it wakes up, that's it. Game over. Its followers will pull it into this world, and it won't stop 'til it's snuffed out every light in creation."

"Okay, stop. Seriously, you could've just said the world's going to end if we don't stop the colossal evil monster thing." I finished cleaning up the coffee disaster and dropped down into one of the chairs. "And I would have accepted that, because that's the kind of day I'm having."

"I had to come back, Tommy. The Sleeper's forces are gathering here, they're looking for something they think will help them wake it. We can't let that happen."

That settled it.

I had to find the Libro before this Sleeper's minions did.

It was time to go do something monumentally stupid, and if I botched it, it would end up with me dying a horrific, tragic death and the untimely demise of the entire universe.

"Time to go find us a book, then."

Chapter Seven

"Well, I need to speak with Devlin. Grey, Thomas Grey. Yes, damn it he knows who I am. Fine, but tell him it's important," I said and hung up my cellphone.

Devlin had to give up his source if I was going to stand a chance at locating the Libro Nihil before the Sleeper's agents did. Swift had returned with a sack of hamburgers. I don't care what he is, he's a goodly sort. We all sat down in the kitchen to eat and figure out the next move.

"Any luck?" Swift asked.

"Devlin's simpering minion said he's busy. If he doesn't call back soon, I'm going down to the Red House."

The Red House was Devlin's sanctuary, his castle, the seat of power from which he ruled over his tiny kingdom.

"And you think he knows where the book is?" Hack asked around a mouthful of burger.

"No, but someone tipped him off to it being here in town and I want to know who that is. What do you know about the Libro, Hack?"

"About as much as the next mage. When your great-granddad and I went after Abel Grannok, the crazy son of a bitch was trying to recreate one of the formulae from it to punch a hole to the Other Side," Hack said.

"Where would Grannok have gotten the formula?" Swift asked.

A damn fine question.

"Because he supposedly had the book. That's the whole reason Henry left the old country, he was chasing after the book. He followed leads for years, but died before he could ever find it," Hack said.

"Say what?" I almost did a spit-take.

That was news to me. I had read through every single one of my great-grandfather's journals and notebooks, they were required reading during Hack's tenure as my mentor. Not a single one of them ever so much as mentioned the Libro Nihil.

"Henry knew the book was somewhere around here. He'd heard Grannok had it, but after he was taken care of we tore his whole farm apart looking for it and came up with nothing," Hack said.

"Then we have to go back to Grannok's farm. We have to try looking again, for anything that might give us a clue," I said. I stood up from the table and shouldered my bag. I finally felt like I was moving in the right direction, that I had a solid lead on something.

"You really think there's anything there?" Swift asked as he stood.

"It's the only thing I have to go on right now. I've worked with less," I said.

"What about the cleaning lady?" Swift asked.

"Damn it."

I swerved down the hall to the living room. There was Rosa, still just this side of comatose, on the couch. She was quickly becoming a thorn in my side. I couldn't just leave her there all day in a supernatural slumber.

I mean, I could, but it wouldn't be right.

Technically.

"I'm assuming just disappearing her is still off the table?"

The only answer that got was a stern look from Swift and a curiously raised brow from Hack. I walked around the couch, moving warily, remembering the thrashing I received the last time Rosa was conscious. There really was no good way to go about this; time to man up. This could only end in tears. I moved over to stand in front of the fireplace, putting a buffer zone of running room between Rosa and I should she awaken feeling punchy again.

"All right, do it. Wake her up, but both of you be ready just in case. She's stronger than she looks."

Swift nodded gravely. Hack watched the whole thing with an amused smile on his face. I flinched when Swift reached over from behind the couch to poke Rosa on the cheek. She twitched, her eyes fluttered, and she sat up and looked around. Swift had retreated to the other side of the room up against the china cabinets with Hack.

The cowards.

She saw the two of them, and gasped when she noticed Hack's eyes. She stood up, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, and continued looking around the room until she landed on me.

"You," Rosa said. It came out sounding like a curse.

"Hola Rosa."

"Who are you? What do you want? How do you know my name?"