The Devil's Backbone (A Niki Slobodian Novel: Book Five) (7 page)

“Try what, you son of a bitch?”

“The thing you want to do more than anything right now. You could just reach out and kill me. That’s what you think, isn’t it? But you won’t risk your friend’s life.”

“I could kill you with a touch,” I said.

“Go ahead,” he said. “If you can kill me, your friend will be free.”

“You’re lying,” I said.

“No. I don’t really do that.”

I looked into his face. He had a smug, condescending expression like he knew something I didn’t. It was a trick, I knew it was a trick. And yet, I felt my hand moving before I could stop it, anger welling up inside me. I put my fingers to his soft throat. It was cool to the touch. I waited for the visions to start, but all I saw was black. Not just black, but darkness. There was a buzzing like my head was filled with wasps and then everything was black. Sights, sounds, smells. The deepest shade imaginable, deeper than deep. I felt suddenly lost in the lack of anything. And then it passed and I was reaching through the man, inside of him, my hand reaching out and finding nothing. Nothing at all.
 

He didn’t have a soul.

I pulled my hand back with a hiss.
 

“Unpleasant, isn’t it?” he said.

“What are you?”
 

He raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re asking the right questions.”

I moved toward Gage to take the gun away, but the strange man stepped in front of me.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said.

“Why not?” I raised my chin defiantly. We were about the same height.

In reply, he waved a hand lazily toward the bed. Gage began to slowly squeeze the trigger. I stepped back quickly.

“Stop,” I said. “Please.”

The man waved again and Gage removed his finger, though he kept the muzzle pressed against the side of his head.
 

“What do you want?”
 

The man frowned. “Your help,” he said. “Obviously.”

* * *
 

It took some time, but I convinced the strange man in a suit to let Gage go in exchange for my help. He had plucked the gun from Gage’s shaking hand and with a wave, Bobby was lying on the bed, asleep. He plopped down on Gage’s worn sofa and put his feet on the coffee table. He twirled the Makarov on his index finger, then, eying me, tossed it my way. I caught it and checked the cartridge. I pointed it at his chest.

“That won’t kill me,” he said with a grin.

“No, but it’ll hurt like a bitch. Talk. Who are you?”

He sighed heavily and removed his feet from the coffee table, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
 

“I don’t really have a name,” he said. “Who, what, it’s all the same. Some people call us the shinigama. But most don’t know we exist. Others know of us, but prefer not to give us a name. To give us a name is to admit that…other things exist.”

“If you don’t have a name, what do you call yourself?” I said. “Am I supposed to just say, ‘Hey, Creepy-Guy-In-A-Tight-Suit?’”

“I’ve always been partial to Aki,” he said. “You can call me that. If you like.”

“Okay, Aki, what the hell do you want from me?”

“Can I have some coffee? I asked the human to make it. It’s been ages since I’ve had a cup.”

“No. Why are you messing around inside Bobby’s head?”

“Because he’s your only friend here,” Aki said. “And I needed you to help me.”

“With what?”

He looked at me with his pale eyes and tapped his fingers on his knees. “Okay,” he said finally. “I’m not from here.”

“Obviously.”

“No, I mean, I’m not from this world.”

“You came for the Yuki-onna?” I said. He nodded, suddenly solemn. “We’re shadows. Smoke on the edge of your vision. We’re not meant to be seen. But you can see us. And you can find her.”

“Why can’t you find her?” I said. “If you’re so powerful why not just go take her out?”

He narrowed his eyes for a moment, and his voice was strained when he spoke again.

“I can’t,” he said softly.

“What was that?”

“I can’t find the Yuki-onna in this world,” he said, his mouth tight with irritation. “I can’t feel her anymore. I’m not as powerful in this world.”

“You could feel her in your world?”

“Oh yes. That’s what I do. I followed her here through a hole in my world. But when the hole healed itself, I was weak. And I lost her.”

“What’s what you do?” I said.

“We’re the ones who hunt the monsters,” he said, the smile creeping back onto his face. “I came here to kill the Yuki-onna.”

“Huh,” I said. “Why haven’t I ever heard of you?”

“You stay in your worlds and I stay in mine…for the most part. But something happened. We trapped the Yuki-onna centuries ago. All the monsters. We made entire worlds so they would be comfortable. Small worlds, but it was the kindest thing we could do. We could have killed them, but we were under orders to have mercy. So we had mercy.”

“But then she escaped,” I said.

“Yes. I don’t know how, but she did.”

“I think I know,” I said. “There’s a boy. An Abby.”

“Abby?”

“Abnormal. A human with power.”

“Ah. Understood.”

“Are there Abbies in other worlds?”

“You misunderstand the way it works, Lady Death. We’re all one world. All the humans in one, everything else in their own. Like your beloved angels and their Briah. It’s a separation the gods agreed to long before you or I sprang into existence. ”

“The gods?” I said. “There are more than one?”

He laughed, then stopped when he saw my face. “You thought there was only one?”

“The Creator,” I said. “You’re saying He has company?”

“You are new, aren’t you?”

“Don’t be an asshole. Just answer my question.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you ever wonder why you didn’t take many souls where they didn’t worship your god?”

“I guess I was too busy to notice,” I said.

“That’s the way with your lot, isn’t it? You love the idea of being the center of the universe.”

“So you’ve been to this world before,” I said. “The human one.”

“Yes,” he said carefully.

“What’s changed?” I said. “Why can’t you do your job?”

He didn’t respond for a moment, and when he did, his voice was low and quiet. “I don’t know. I feel as though I’ve lost my connection to my world. As if something tore or cracked and now I can’t feel the way I need to. It’s like I can’t breathe.”

“Could it have something to do with the Abby boy? The one that let her free?”

“It’s very possible. Where is he?”

“I’m looking for him. He’s…I think he’s opening up holes in the world. I thought the Yuki-onna took him, but now I think he might be in Erebos.”

“Hell,” he said.
 

“Yeah,” I said. “Matthew is in Hell.”

“Maybe he should stay there.”

“What?”

“Better he causes damage there than this world. It’s our purpose. Protect the humans. It’s your purpose too, if I’m not mistaken. Meanwhile, we can find a way to fix what’s broken.”

“We?” I said.

“You and me. Unless you want the crack to deepen. Which could bring consequences I’m positive you don’t want to deal with.”

“Yeah, well, I never signed on for this,” I said.

He laughed a dry laugh. “None of us signed on for this,” he said. “It just is. You may as well accept it.”

“Whatever,” I said.
 

“So, you’ll help me?”

“No.”

He frowned. “Your world is in danger as long as the Yuki-onna is loose.”

“I have a thing.”

“A thing that’s more important than saving the world?”

“There’s more than one world.”

“I’ll kill your friend,” he said. “I can do it. With a wiggle of my little finger.”

“You’re not going to kill him,” I said.

“Do you want to take that bet?” he said.

I pursed my lips, looking at his face. It was suddenly hard and I could see the coldness in his eyes. He would kill Gage. He’d have no problem with it. I couldn’t let that happen. Gage had been the only friend that had stood by me these past few years. And I knew it hadn’t been easy for him.

“No,” I said. “I don’t.”

“Okay, then,” he said, sitting back, a satisfied smile spreading. “So you’re going to help me.”

“I need to go to Erebos,” I said. “You don’t understand. Someone is in danger.”

“Who? The boy?”

“No, someone else,” I said. “It’s very important.”

“Is he dead?”

“Not yet.”

“Help me first. Then go to Erebos. Unless you want a dead friend on your conscience.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll help you. But first I have to do something.”

“What?”

I squeezed the trigger on the Makarov and the room exploded with the sound of the shot. Aki looked down at the blood pouring out of the hole in his chest. It was odd. Like thick, viscous black smoke. He looked at me, shock and irritation in his eyes.

“Ow!” he said. “You didn’t have to shoot me.”

“It was on my to-do list,” I said. “Don’t ever threaten my friends.”

“Fine,” he said, “if you don’t shoot me any more. This was a new suit.”

“No one can see you,” I said. “Why do you need a suit?”

“It’s called personal grooming,” he said, looking up and down at my dirty jeans and tee-shirt. “You should try it sometime.”

“I will shoot you again,” I said.

“Okay,” he said, rubbing his chest. He took his hand away to reveal that the hole was gone. Just a hole in the middle of his dress shirt. “Can I have some of that coffee now?”
 

“No,” I said. I was starting to feel a tug deep in my chest. It grew, becoming more intense, just on the brink of pain. “She’s started again,” I said. “I can feel it.”

“Then I guess we’d better go,” said Aki with an unsettling smile. He was hard and wiry as we traveled, and I couldn’t help but feel a moment of sadness that he wasn’t Lucifer. I pushed the feeling away. Aki smelled heavily of cologne, but underneath there was something else. Something stale and old. As we touched down, I pushed him away, the nearness of him making me feel slightly ill. He staggered, nearly falling over.

“Sorry,” I said.
 

“It’s a common reaction,” he said, busying himself with straightening his shredded suit. “So, where are we?”

“Does it matter?” I said, wrapping my arms around myself in the cold. Aki seemed unaffected and looked around him curiously. We were in a small city, dirty and run down, with high mountains in the distance. I ignored Aki and walked down the street, following the pull in my chest, aching and throbbing more by the second. The street was empty, the air frigid with a sharp wind cutting against my face. One by one, I touched the lost souls, confused by the sudden end, so pointless and cruel. A mother staring into a frozen baby carriage. A group of teenage boys outside a video store. A young couple near an ice cream parlor. A pretty woman in her thirties with dreadlocks like ropes in her hair cried when she saw me. A man tried to run away, the gray in his beard not nearly as plentiful as he would have liked before he saw my face. I caught him easily and he nodded in understanding before he went. Every one felt like a kick in the guts, the way the souls looked at me, the fear, the tears, the loathing. To them, I was the one ending their lives, not the Yuki-onna.

“Why do they hate you?” said Aki. “It’s not your fault.”

“Human nature,” I said.
 

“They fear you.”

“Everyone fears me,” I said.

“Even your friends?”

I swallowed down the bitterness his words brought up.
 

“Yes. Even my friends.”

“Not all of them, though. There’s one who is not afraid.”

“I can’t think of him right now,” I said, too quickly. “I’m here to help you, remember? To save Bobby.”

“I can help you, too, you know,” said Aki, looking at me slyly. “It goes both ways.”

“I don’t need your help,” I said. “I like to be able to trust the people around me.”

“Well, we both know that’s a lie. You forgive faster than you trust.”

He didn’t talk any more after that because the cold became suddenly overwhelming. For a few moments I couldn’t get my breath. When I did, it felt like my lungs filled with ice, as if the lightest of blows would shatter them. With each step, my limbs grew heavier, the numbness setting in quickly and crawling up my arms and thighs. I couldn’t feel my face and my eyelashes became stiff, making it hard to blink. Aki didn’t seem to be suffering from the same problems, but was looking around, alert, searching for the source of the cold.

I forced myself to trudge forward, past a dirty convenience store, through the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant. Aki was giving off black smoke, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. I was struggling to keep up with his casual stroll. There was a flare of heat in my core, something that was keeping me from freezing solid like the last time.

We walked straight into the bright white funnel of snow and ice and wind. And there she was, standing atop a pile of ice pushed into a great mound that was taller than I was. I squinted. Not ice. I looked at the blue crystallized shapes under the Yuki-onna. I made out the lithe shapes of arms and legs. Hair. The pale and unseeing eyes of hundreds of bodies frozen solid with the blue that now writhed in the gilded birdcage that hung from her hand. She saw me and smiled, her small teeth colored red. Her eyes slid past me and landed on Aki.
 

“Why have you brought him?” she said, seeming more hurt than angry.

“I had to,” I said. “He was going to kill my only friend.”

“I could be your friend.” Her voice echoed quietly in my head. “We could rid the world of all of them. All these barbaric men. They take our dignity, they take our children, and they shut us away. But you and I, we could make them cry. Our names would be the last sigh on their pale, cold lips.”

“They took your child?” I said. For a moment, the Yuki-onna looked absolutely human. The hurt in her eyes, the slope to the shoulders, the trembling lip. But then she straightened and remembered herself. And there was nothing in her eyes but cold cruelty.

“They will take yours too,” she said. “He wants to kill me.”