Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) (8 page)

Yet, even as I said the words, I realized it sort of did endear him to me. Okay, he’d tricked me into helping him, but it had been for the right reasons. He wanted to save his town. I could respect that.

By the time we pulled up in front of the hive, I’d decided I was a fan of French fries and not because I’d eaten six orders of them. It was more because the combination of salt, carbs, and fat had helped me replenish my magical reserves almost as fast as some of the special concoctions we used back home. Only those tasted way worse.

“Thanks for the fries,” I said, tossing the empty bag on the floor of the van and taking a sip of my soda. It was a little bubbly for my tastes, but it sure was yummy.

“No problem,” Luc said, eyeing me as he backed the van into a parking space beneath a faded white, metal covering. He slipped the vehicle in park. “But I’m starting to get worried that if you keep eating like that—”

“If you’re about to tell me I’ll get fat,” I stated, letting the emotion drain from my voice as I fixed him with the coldest stare I could muster. “I’m going to tell you this right now. I shot the last guy who said something similar in the chest with a shotgun. He was half-demon so it didn’t kill him.” I gestured at Luc with my greasy fingers. “I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re less than bulletproof.” I smiled at him.

He threw himself back in his seat like he was trying to get away from me in a hurry and raised his hands in supplication. “I wasn’t going to say anything like that,” he said, and I could tell he was a little worried, like he actually thought I’d shoot him over it.

Truthfully, the guy I’d shot had been my ex-boyfriend. Calling me fat had been one of the least horrible things he’d done. Let’s just say that by the time I’d had the nerve to walk away from that failed relationship, a shotgun blast to the chest was letting him off easy.

I turned away from Luc and stared out the windshield toward what looked like an innocuous office building. Pine trees grew out on either side of the walkway leading to the main entrance which was sort of funny looking because the rest of the perimeter was lined with shrubbery, making it appear like someone had grown a forest green gate.

The building itself was only a couple stories tall and had a lot fewer windows than I’d have expected. Nearly all of them were covered with those thick metal hurricane shutters even though I was reasonably sure there weren’t hurricanes in California. It was a little weird, but then again, it made sense if it was occupied by vampires.

While sunlight didn’t bother them per se, the younger they were, the more sunlight seemed to diminish their innate vampire powers. Even though I’d killed my fair share of the undead at night, I always liked to take them on during the day if at all possible. It was just easier that way since they were weaker.

“You ready to go?” I asked, unbuckling my seatbelt and reaching behind the seat to pull out my swords. This time I wasn’t taking any chances. I’d had Luc stop, and in addition to picking me up a snack, I’d grabbed my katana, Isis from its hiding place.

Now, reunited with her brother, Set, I could feel the twin blades throbbing with energy. Among my people, these weapons were famous, but I never quite trusted them. In fact, the only reason I used them at all was because they had belonged to Dirge Meilan. It made using their mystical powers way easier because whatever connection they’d shared with her had, at least partially, transferred to me.

I’d tried to find my own blade a couple times before, to forge something for myself, but so far, I hadn’t gained the level of connection with other weapons. Part of me suspected it was because I was already connected to Set and Isis. Yes, the rumors were true. This weapon was inhabited by
the
Set and
the
Isis. And no, I’d never learned how Dirge managed to get them to aid her. It was one of the memories I couldn’t access.

“Bringing out the big guns, eh?” Luc said as he got out of the car and moved around to my door, opening it for me even though I wasn’t sure why he did it. In fact, now that I thought about it, he almost always opened the door for me. Did he think I couldn’t do it myself?

“Yeah, this time if I find some powerful vampires, I don’t want to be at half strength,” I replied, belting their sheathes around my waist, slightly annoyed the weapons slid low on my hips like they always did. I’d tried tugging the belt tighter, but it never seemed to work. My mother said I just had one of those shapes and to go with it. She didn’t understand because with a body like hers, she had probably never worn anything that didn’t make her look like a goddess. My weapons, on the other hand, made my butt look huge.

“Shirajirashii should do the trick then,” Luc said, gesturing at the weapons, and for a moment, I was surprised he knew the name Dirge had called them. It was mostly because of their color since, loosely translated, Shirajirashii meant pure white in Japanese and their blades were the color of freshly fallen snow. Even still, it seemed like a silly name to give weapons inhabited by Egyptian Gods so I mostly just called them Isis and Set.

“Yeah, I don’t call them that,” I muttered, touching the pommels of the blades with my palms and feeling the familiar energy of the spirits within adding to my confidence. “They seem to like it better when I call them by their names. Besides, it tends to scare people when they know I’m wielding swords powered by Egyptian Gods.” I shrugged. Most other Dioscuri liked to hide who their spirits were, but ever since Dirge had died, everyone knew who hers were anyway. “It was a tip I picked up from my old mentor.”

“What was his spirit called?” Luc asked, moving around the back of the van and swinging the doors open.

“Ymir. You know, the original giant Odin slew? His body was used to create the world,” I said, but the blank look on his face told me he had no idea what I was talking about. “There’s a song…”

“I must have missed that one. I’m more of a classic rock guy myself.” He shook his head at me and pulled a shotgun from the back of the van. While guns weren’t as effective as I’d have liked them to be on vampires, the undead still had to expend energy to heal the damage, and you know, contend with having their bodies ripped to shreds by bullets. I’d seen him load other weapons, but I wasn’t sure where they were hidden since he was wearing a dark blue leather trench coat, presumably to hide all his weaponry.

I sighed and rubbed my temples. “I’m guessing you don’t take classes in Norse history?”

“We call it mythology and… wait. Are you telling me all of that is real?” He paled, which was a little funny because I could see the wheels spinning behind his eyes. Evidently, I’d just thrown his world into a tailspin.

“More or less.” I shrugged. “It’s all real, more or less.” He looked like he was going to ask more, but I held up my hand to silence him before gesturing at the sky. The sun was already getting low in the horizon. It wouldn’t be long before it started to fade completely from the sky. I didn’t want to be inside the building when that happened for obvious reasons. “Now let’s get going. We’re burning daylight.”

Luc cocked his shotgun in response as we headed toward the building. Every step felt sort of foreboding, making the hair stand up on the back of my neck and my teeth chatter. It was always like this when I got ready for a mission. I never really got ahold of myself until I was in the thick of things. Then my training would take over, and I’d be fine, more or less, but the walking in part… well, that always sucked.

“So why haven’t you just burned the building to the ground?” I asked as we approached the twin pine trees. Something about them was even more unnerving on foot, though I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like they were ents and would pull themselves from the ground and try to beat me into oblivion. I mean, that’d happened before, but they tended not to leave the black forest along the border of Germany.

“I’d thought about it originally, but even though that looks like a pretty normal building, most of it is underground. It has these weird hatches inside that seal off and suck the air from rooms to smother fire in addition to a state of the art sprinkler system. That and most of the walls are solid concrete, so well, unless I have a nuclear device, I’m not going to kill much with explosives or fire. I can’t just fling a Molotov cocktail at it and tear away in my low-rider.” Luc shrugged.

“I don’t know what half of the things you just said mean, but I’m going to assume it won’t work,” I replied, giving him a thin smile.

Before he could respond, a branch shot out of the pine tree next to him and wrapped its wooden fingers around his throat. It hoisted him into the air like he was a toothpick. The sound of cracking wood and rustling leaves filled my ears as I threw myself backward, thankful I’d been a few steps behind Luc. A branch flew through the spot I’d just occupied as I landed hard on my shoulders, rolling across the pavement in a way that let me know I’d have bruises in the morning.

I came to my feet and drew my weapons. The pure white blades of Shirajirashii glinted in the sunlight as the tree pulled itself free of the ground and began moving toward me. Its bark was as black as soot and yellow orbs glowed inside its green pine needles. The orbs focused on me, and the giant tree monster took a lumbering step forward, spraying soil across the concrete.

“Why the hell are you here?” I screamed at the ent because they almost never left the forest. Its appearance here was odd to say the least. Instead of replying, the tree monster whipped its body around in a way that made me think of a willow being hit by a heavy gale. Pinecones exploded from its branches, their razor sharp edges more than enough to cut me into twain, you know, provided the poison didn’t kill me first.

I darted to the side, but there was no way I’d get free of the deluge in time. Muttering, I held Isis out in front of me. Blue light filled the space around the katana as a wall of force slammed down in front of me and solidified into an invisible shield. The pinecones hit it with so much strength, I was forced backward along the parking lot, my shoes skidding along the surface.

Sweat trickled down my face as I reached out toward Set, willing it to lend its sister some power. Then the pinecones exploded. The blast threw me backward, shattering my shield as my feet left the ground. I crashed to the ground, but kept a grip on my weapons as the ent shambled forward. It wasn’t fast, thank God, but it was still a living tree. It’d hurt like hell if it hit me.

I crawled to my feet as something exploded behind the creature, throwing bark and other debris into the air and distilling my hearing into an angry whine. The ent coming toward me, turned, shuffling its immense bulk as I ran at the creature. It didn’t even notice me until I landed amid its branches and drove my wakazashi deep into its trunk. Black sap that sort of smelled like fresh maple syrup exploded from the wound, coating me in a sheen of sticky liquid.

A howl tore through the air as it tried to shake me off. I ducked an oncoming branch and focused my will. The smell of pine was overwhelming as I reached out and called upon my magic. Lightning shot from the sky and slammed straight down on the spot where Set was embedded into the creature. The blast tore the living tree asunder in a flash that threw me backward.

Air whooshed out of my lungs as I smacked into the shrubbery. I threw my arms up to cover myself as sticks and other debris pelted me in the face and body. The ent leaned to the side, half blackened. Flames crawled up out of its center as it whirled, evidently not knowing it should stop, drop, and roll.

I ignored the thrashing creature and got to my feet, glad the lightning thing had worked. Set was a storm god after all, but I’d never really been good at storm magic even though both of my parents were masters of the art. It was a little weird since things like that were normally hereditary, but someone had told me Dirge had sucked at it too. Either way, I was more than happy to blame it on her.

“Timber!” Luc called, and as I glanced around for him, I saw the other ent toppling over like someone had sliced it in half. It fell, branches snapping against the pavement as a howl of anguish tore through the air. Black fluid spewed from its bottom in a wave that left the ground covered in sticky sap. Luc stood behind it, brandishing some kind of whirring chain weapon. He gestured at the creature with it and smirked. “That’s why I always carry a chainsaw,” he said, before raising it over his head in triumph.

“Remind me to get one of those things,” I said, making my way toward him.

“They’re on aisle six.” He smirked and did something to the weapon. The blade stopped whirring, and as he watched it slow, he glanced from me to the trees still thrashing in their death throes. “What are those?”

“Ents. Living tree monsters. I’ll be honest, whatever brought them here must be really powerful since they almost never come out of the forest.” I shrugged because I didn’t know what else to do. It was either that or retreat screaming. I wasn’t about to do that because not only would it not help the situation, but I was supposed to be tough. Running away would sort of hurt that image.

Still, the idea of tangling with something strong enough to drag ents out of hiding and use them as perimeter defense scared the bejesus out of me, especially since we were dealing with vampires. It meant the culprit was likely to be really old, and not only that, but whatever was inside that compound would likely be way, way worse than ents. I didn’t even want to think of what would be on the bottom floor.

“Well, let’s go,” Luc said, moving toward the door probably because he didn’t know enough to be scared. Before I could do anything, he rapped on the metal doors at the entrance. “Special delivery!”

The door creaked open and a gust of frigid air swept out, making gooseflesh sprout across my skin even though I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Luc turned to me and exhaled a breath of foggy air before shining his flashlight into the depths.

It was so dark inside, I couldn’t make out anything aside from white marble floors and what looked like a receptionist’s desk. Only there was no receptionist. As the beam crawled upward along the desk’s sleek metal finish, it revealed an empty chair. Behind it was a painting of the moon shining over a lonely desert, only instead of the night sky being blue, it was crimson.