Ethereal Entanglements (17 page)

She shuffled up the walk and sat next to a wilted rhododendron. Tears fell fast and hard and she covered her face.

This crying crap had to stop, and she knew how to do that. She’d done it hundreds of times. Just suck it all in and suck it all up, and it went away so she could get on with things.

“Hi there.”

Claire looked up to see an Asian woman in a police uniform standing in front of her, wearing a friendly smile. Straight, black bangs covered her forehead with the rest of her hair in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her soft, brown eyes seemed sympathetic. She wore a silver name badge that read
Sato
.

Ashamed of being caught like this again, Claire covered her face. She also made sure her spare pants covered the dagger at her side.

“Is there someone I can call to come pick you up?”

She sounded so friendly.

“No.”

“Do you mind if I sit here?”

“No.” Claire heard rustling as Officer Sato sat down cross-legged and could tell she chose to be out of reach, but close enough to talk.

“Did someone hurt you?”

“No. I ruined everything.”

“Are you pregnant?”

Claire pulled her hands down and blinked, shocked out of her tears. “What? No, of course not. I…” She couldn’t tell a cop about the two people she killed, Rondy, Kay, Ki, or much of anything else. “I was upset. My best friend tried to cheer me up by sneaking beer from his grandpa. We got caught with it.”

“That sounds pretty scary. Did your parents yell? Hit you?”

Referring to Marie as her mom and Justin as her dad felt weird. Claire took a few moments to convince herself she needed to do it. “My mom was really creepy calm, but I could tell she was pissed. And my dad. He’s not home yet, but I know he’s going to freak out. And I…I kind of…it was an accident. I hit someone and they got hurt, but I didn’t know until later because they seemed fine and I was scared and I don’t even know why.”

It took all her willpower to not spill everything to this nice woman who only wanted to help. “I just keep screwing everything up. It’s all my fault. It’s always all my fault. If my dad had let me die instead of saving my life, all kinds of things wouldn’t have happened!”

Sato gave her a sympathetic smile. “That sounds like a really bad day. What does your dad do when he freaks out?”

Claire wiped her face on her sleeve again. She had no answer. “I-I don’t know.” The words slipped out before she could stop them.

“You don’t know? You mean he’s never freaked out about anything before, or maybe just not at you?” Sato’s smile turned lopsided. “Is this the first time you’ve done anything that feels like you’re in real trouble?”

Faced with the prospect of either agreeing or explaining, Claire nodded her agreement.

“In my experience, fleeing punishment is often worse than the punishment itself. When I was your age, it was actually the disappointment that felt the worst.” Sato grinned. “I remember the first time I had beer. The summer after my senior year, when my best friend and I were still seventeen, a bunch of us drove to Cannon Beach with a few six-packs. Cops noticed us after we’d been partying for a while and dragged us all in. I was cited for underage drinking, public lewdness, public drunkenness, and burning without a permit.”

Claire blinked, taken off-guard by the idea of a cop who’d gotten into what sounded like serious trouble as a teenager. She always thought of them as either perfect or bullies.

“They called our parents, of course. My father drove out there and picked me up with this look on his face. You know that look? The one they give when they’re so disappointed words can’t explain how upset they are. Once he gave me that look, no punishment could compare to feeling like I’d done something to make him think I hated him, or like he was a bad parent. But the good thing? All it took was an apology and explanation, then the disappointment went away. Sure, I got grounded, and it took a while to rebuild the trust, but he still loved me. That part never changes.”

All of a sudden, Claire felt stupid. Marie would never hurt a fly. Justin had argued to save her life even
when he was tainted
, for goodness’ sake. If he’d wanted to get rid of her, that day would have been when it showed. Enion told her plainly that he needed to fly, probably to sort out his feelings and release pent-up energy, and he expected her to do the same. She didn’t know about everything else, but those three wouldn’t abandon or forsake her.

She wiped her face with her sleeve. “I should go home.”

Sato stood with a sympathetic smile and offered Claire a hand. “You can call from inside to have them come pick you up.”

“We don’t have a car.”

“Then I can give you a ride.”

Chapter 25

Justin

Justin buckled his pauldrons over his shoulders and exerted his will to make his armor shrink to fit him. This extra step sometimes annoyed him, but it meant no need for belts, fasteners, or struggles. As he buckled his sword belt on, Ki lifted the trap door in the back room of Nine Cans.

Avery wore his sword under his trenchcoat. He climbed down the ladder first, shining a flashlight around the room. “Are you ever going to put a floor of some sort down here, Ki?”

“And ruin the ambiance? Absolutely not.”

Justin stepped off the ladder beside Avery and swept his own flashlight around to get a feel for the place. Though he knew about the tunnels, he’d never been in them before.

“Have fun down there,” Ki said with a cheery wave. He dropped the trap door and it shut with a clank, cutting off the light from above. Darkness seemed to press on the flashlight beams, as if the artificial light offended it.

Avery’s light caught a flash of bright, shiny blue, a color out of place in this drab, dingy cellar. Both men trained their beams on it. As they watched, a foot-long ant lifted its head and regarded them with two black eyes. Its hairy antennae twitched and its blackened pincers clicked sharp, jagged teeth. Metallic blue armored plates covered the insect’s three body sections.

“Why is it blue?” Justin whispered. He shifted his flashlight, expecting to find more.

“Magic.” Avery drew his sword and advanced on the oversized ant with small, deliberate steps.

Justin also drew his sword and followed the wall with his beam of light, turning in a slow circle. Behind him, he heard the ant make a putting noise that reminded him of Missy spitting out water in the bathtub. The stench of sulfur filled the air and something sizzled.

His light hit misty silver only a foot away from his face. He let out a startled squawk and hopped away from it. A ghostly woman in a fringed flapper dress reached for him with a delicate hand. He twisted aside and slashed his sword up through her body, slicing from hip to shoulder.

The ghost’s two halves slid apart, spewing sickly green vapor instead of blood. Usually when he stabbed a ghost, it dissipated. Justin watched in horror as the vapor’s color drained and formed a bridge between the two halves, pulling them together. He backed away until he ran into Avery.

“We…might have a problem.” Terror tickled the back of Justin’s mind. He clamped it down.

“I’m getting that feeling.”

Justin glanced toward the ant. An oblong patch of ground in front of it rippled like a liquid but still appeared to be dirt. He saw it spit on the ground, creating more ripples and expanding the odd patch toward Avery.

“I can’t kill this ghost.” Justin hacked the misty woman in half again, as it had to stop and reconstitute before continuing to approach him.

“It’s not a ghost. Switch your sight. There should be a tether to the ley line. Cut that.” Avery stepped to the side, backing away from both the woman and the ant.

Justin moved with him. He noticed a frayed, blackened patch on the lower hem of Avery’s trenchcoat that he didn’t recall being there before. The ant apparently spat something caustic enough to eat through enchanted fabric. “Tariel’s not here. I can’t switch my sight.”

“Fine. You handle the ant. Watch out, it’s spitting acid.” Avery stood for half a second, then he traded places with Justin. “Ah. There it is.”

While Avery closed in with the woman, Justin ran at the ant. He held his sword out to skewer it. Blue liquid streamed out of the ant’s mouth and splashed on Justin’s enchanted jeans. His sword skittered off the ant’s exoskeleton and he yelped as the acidic spit ate through to his shin. He yelped in surprise and pain.

“How many memory echoes are down here?” Avery growled.

Justin had no time or attention to give Avery. He resisted the urge to dance away from the ant. The injury he suffered for his approach shouldn’t be wasted. Standing over it, he thrust his sword down. Again, the blade slid off its outer shell, but this time he twisted and sliced through the narrow joint between the second and third section. In the back of his mind, he remembered the names for those two parts from science class many years ago—thorax and abdomen.

The abdomen fell and sprayed thick, blue ichor. All six legs remained functional and the ant lunged at Justin. He cried out as its pincers stabbed through the hole it had made in his jeans and into his leg.

Avery swore heatedly. His voice faded as he moved down the tunnel. “Are you okay?”

“More or less,” Justin ground out between clenched jaws. He stomped on the ant, ripping its jagged pincers out and pinning it to the ground.

“This whole place is covered in magic! Like the ley line erupted.”

Dropping down, Justin chopped at the ant’s head until the blade hacked it in half. Ichor splashed him, burning his skin. “Great,” he muttered. “Our own little magic Mount St. Helens.” He wiped his face with his arm and used his flashlight to check his leg. The ant had ripped out a quarter-sized chunk of flesh and he bled freely. A reddened patch of skin beside it bubbled painfully from the acid. This much distance from Tariel meant he healed slowly unless he focused on his bond with her.

Chittering echoed in the tunnel. Justin fumbled with his flashlight until it pointed that way. Another metallic blue ant walked toward him, clicking its pincers. He didn’t have time to heal. Lurching to his feet, he hissed in pain and staggered back. His boot hit unstable ground and he sank into the ant’s weird puddle up to his knee. The liquid dirt bubbled and sizzled around his leg.

He threw himself to the side and saw the remains of his work boot drip off his foot. His sock disintegrated while he watched and melting denim plopped to the ground. Two metallic blue ants approached the ant corpse and wiggled their antennae over it.

Ants came in swarms. Justin gulped and shoved himself farther away. One had been bad enough. “Avery? I might need some help. There’s more than one!”

Avery didn’t answer. Either he’d gone too far to hear, or the memory echoes took care of him. The two ants clicked at each other. They looked at Justin. He pointed his sword at them, ready to take acid in the face if he had to.

Thumping on the ground announced Avery’s return at a run. The two ants flinched and darted away. Avery leaped over the puddle and grabbed Justin’s arm.

“We need to go.” Avery hauled Justin to his feet and pushed him up the ladder.

Justin shoved the trapdoor open and tossed both sword and flashlight aside before heaving himself out. Avery climbed out and kicked the trapdoor shut. Justin groaned and lay on his back, wanting never to go down there again. With his eyes open so he could pay attention for the next minute, he reached for his bond with Tariel to heal himself.

“Ki!” Avery stood on the trapdoor.

Ki stepped into the back room and his smile fell into a frown as he looked them over. “This looks serious.”

“Nobody goes down there until I say so. We’ve got to gather some supplies and come back. I recommend putting something heavy over this trap door so nothing can get out this way.”

“You think the memory echoes will try to escape?”

“No.” Avery sheathed his sword and clicked off his flashlight. “They’re tethered to the ley line. It’s the other things I’m worried about.”

Ki gave him a long, slow blink. Then he gulped. “Oh. Oh dear. I’ll block it up until you come back. Later today, I hope?”

“It depends on how long it takes us to get what we need. Could be a few days.”

Justin sighed as Tariel’s presence washed over him, chasing away his pain. He sat up and examined his sword, pleased to see it hadn’t been damaged by the ant’s blood or spit. “Those things are going to get loose and kill people.”

Avery gripped his forearm and helped him stand. “Probably. You only saw the ants, though. There are also cockroaches. By the time we come back, there might be other things. I’ll explain in the car.”

Ki tossed him a dishrag. When Justin wiped his blade with it, the cloth sizzled and smoked. He dropped it before it could eat away his hand. “Goodness gracious,” Ki breathed. “Maybe I should…take a vacation while they’re fixing the door.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Avery opened the back door and held it for Justin. “May I have a key to the back door, then? We’ll need to get back in.”

Justin winced as he stepped on gravel. Heading back to the car, he tried to figure how he’d fit a new pair of boots into the family budget. The enchantment he’d bargained for years ago was supposed to keep them from being damaged. He’d done the same thing with his jeans. Both had proven less than helpful in protecting him from anything besides possessed animals and Phasms.

When he reached Avery’s car, it opened its door for him. He shrugged out of his armor and tossed both it and his sheathed sword in the back seat. Avery hurried to the car a minute later. “Stirin, take us to the station.”

Justin stared for a beat while the car pulled into traffic, thinking he’d heard wrong. Then he glared at Avery. “Really? Now? After that? We should be going for answers and supplies. I want to know what the hell Claire did down there and how we can fix it. We need a witch for that, not cops.”

Avery rolled his eyes. “You can’t put this off forever. The sooner it’s handled, the sooner you can stop worrying about it.”

“I’m not worried about it! You’re the one who cares. I’m fine to just ignore it.” Noticing he’d yelled at Avery, Justin took a few moments to breathe. He’d find the money to get boots and jeans. They’d deal with whatever Claire did and stop the mutant insect apocalypse. He’d somehow convince Marie not to be angry anymore. Yelling, though, especially at Avery, would not accomplish any of these things.