Marked (23 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

C
acy sat in the back of the limousine, staring out at the canal without actually seeing it. She had to be at work in a few hours, but she didn’t want to think about it. Would Eli even show up? And did she want him to?

She’d
been obsessing over that last question for the past few hours, and she had yet to come up with an answer. She shivered in the air-conditioned chill of the backseat and wrapped her arms around herself, but it did nothing to mend the gaping gash in her heart. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Eli’s face as he turned away from her at the hospital. It was as if, when Moros took his soul, he had also taken all of Eli’s feelings for her.

She sniffled and tucked her hair behind her ear as the driver pulled up to the Psychopomps Inc. building. This time, when he offered his hand, she took it and let him drag her up. She walked forward unsteadily, realizing she hadn’t slept since the day before. At some point, she would crash. But she had to meet with Rylan now. She had some questions.

Rylan was standing in the lobby when she arrived. He frowned when he saw her and held his arms out. She stepped into them and let him hug her, but she didn’t have the energy to hug back. He held her shoulders and looked down at her. “I’m so sorry, Cacy. About all of this. Word reached me that Eli is a Ker now.”

Cacy bit her lip to hold the sob inside. She nodded. Rylan crushed her to his chest again, so hard she could barely breathe. “I’ve arranged for a meeting with the Keepers of the Afterlife,” he said, his deep bass voice vibrating in her ear. “Moros is going to be punished for what he’s done. It’s time for the Keepers to put him down. They should have done it millennia ago, and I got the sense they’re eager for any excuse to do it now. And we’re going to be the ones to make it happen, Cacy.”

“Moros didn’t Mark Eli.”

Though
she’d
mumbled the words against his chest, Rylan heard her loud and clear. He tensed and tipped her chin up. “Who told you that?”

“He did.”

Rylan stepped back quickly. “You talked to him
again
?”

“When I went to guide Eli’s soul, he was there. He said there’s a rogue Ker on the loose, and he plans to find out who.”

Rylan’s face flushed. “And you believed him?”

Cacy looked away, her eyes sliding over the vacant reception desk. Pictures of Shauna with her parents and friends still lined its surface. “He told me he planned to let Galena live.”

Rylan coughed out a bitter laugh. “You’re very gullible, little sister. We have ample evidence against him. Look what he did to Eli. For all we know, he’s responsible for Father’s death. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he got to Shauna.”

Cacy walked forward and picked up one of the picture frames. She stared at the bright, innocent smile of the round-faced young woman. “What could have made her want to hurt Eli?”

Rylan sighed. “She confided in me about a month ago. She’s been secretly dating a Ker. It would have enraged her parents.” He joined Cacy at the desk and picked up a graduation picture. Shauna beamed at the camera, her arms wrapped around her mother and father. “Maybe the Ker she was dating was just following orders, or maybe he was rogue. Either way, there’s a good possibility that he convinced her to do it. To get to
me
. To us.” He frowned at the happy young girl in the photo. “She could have done it all, Cacy. She could have bribed someone to delete the video of the attack on Father. She was good friends with Chad—she could have asked him to stop the car by the Common and could have paid someone for the killing. She knew where Debra and Peter were and could have worked with her boyfriend to Mark and guide them to the Afterlife without anyone knowing it.”

Cacy wasn’t sure Shauna was capable of such serious masterminding. She took the picture from Rylan. “Did Shauna say anything when you escorted her soul?”

Rylan’s lips became a tight white line as he shook his head.

Cacy swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. “Did she end up in Heaven?”

Rylan looked at the floor and shook his head again.

The picture frame fell from Cacy’s numb hands and hit the floor with a clatter. “Do her parents know?”

“I couldn’t lie to them,” said Rylan solemnly. “They had to know why I would take the life of one of the Ferrys, why I would do something so extreme and permanent. It hasn’t happened in decades.” The Charon was the only one who could discipline the Ferrys, and the only one who could execute one of them if they wore the Raven Mark on their skin. If he wielded the weapon, the wounds wouldn’t heal.

Rylan touched his Scope. “Aislin is particularly furious. She doesn’t believe Shauna committed this crime, even though you and I both saw it with our own eyes.”

Cacy looked down at the frame, the digital image of Shauna’s smiling face now flickering with static. Could Aislin have convinced Shauna to kill for her? Had Aislin given her the gun? “Are the police investigating?”

“Of course,” said Rylan, kneeling to pick up the picture. He leaned over and dropped it into a wastebasket. “They said I wouldn’t be charged. It was obviously a justifiable homicide.”

Cacy put a hand to her stomach, which was feeling distinctly rebellious. “I’m sorry, Rylan. I don’t think I could bear to kill someone and then send them to Hell.”

He shrugged. “It was necessary. Now. How are you? I felt awful when I heard about Eli. Making Eli a Ker was just about the most evil thing Moros could have done.”

Cacy nodded, but she was surprised at how wrong it felt. She knew she should be horrified, but every time she tried to summon up that feeling, all that was waiting for her was relief that Eli was still on Earth. Still existing where she could see him, where she could touch him—not that
he’d
let her. But no matter what he had done, and no matter what he did now, she couldn’t make herself wish he was gone.

“I’ll take care of this, Cacy. I’m going to ask the Keepers to fold the Kere into the Psychopomps empire. To put them under my supervision. I swear to you, I’ll root out the evil ones, and if you want me to, I’ll have Eli sent away. I’ll fix all of this for you.”

Cacy took a step back from her older brother, her heart constricting. “I have to get to work.” She didn’t want Eli anywhere but next to her, but there was no way she was going to argue with Rylan now.

Rylan took her by the shoulders again, his dark eyes boring into hers. “Don’t worry about this. But stay away from Eli. The Kere are devious and sadistic—even before Moros takes their souls. Eli is obviously not the man you thought he was. Don’t let him hurt you. Please.” He chuckled drily. “You haven’t been listening to me lately, but do this for me. His loyalty is to Moros now, not to you or the Ferrys. He’s dangerous.”

Cacy nodded, if only to escape the laser beam of his gaze. “Don’t worry. I know.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

E
li walked into the garage slowly, focused entirely on staying calm.
He’d
called the Lord of the Kere before leaving home and made sure someone Moros trusted was watching over the apartment and the lab, guarding Galena from anyone who would try to hurt her. Eli would have done it himself, but the past few hours had been hell on earth, and he felt like a brick of C-4, ready to explode at the slightest trigger.
He’d
been yanked into the Veil once more as soon as
he’d
left home, names appearing on his arm like someone had carved them there, faces appearing in his mind like
they’d
been stamped on his brain. And the only way to make it stop was to touch the people whose faces
he’d
seen. He was drawn to them, almost magnetically, and found himself stepping in and out of the Veil with only a thought, with just the push of an instinct that was now buried deeply within him.

He’d
walked behind the young couple for nearly an hour, unable to stomach causing the deaths of these two innocent people. But the names and faces of Karen Pitts and Daniel Bateman were burrowing a hole right through him as he watched them stroll obliviously down the street, window-shopping, holding hands, and leaning in to kiss every so often. To Eli, it was beyond painful, for so many reasons. They were young. Karen had stylishly spiky brown hair and was wearing a green dress that could barely contain her voluptuous body. She carried a matching beaded purse that glittered under the streetlights as she walked. Daniel was stocky and fit, his reddish hair buzzed close to his head. Eli wondered if he was in the military.

Unlike the old man, this pair hadn’t yet had a chance to live their lives. It seemed so unfair. And it reminded him too much of what
he’d
lost. He could picture walking with Cacy like that, holding her hand, pulling her close every few blocks to taste her lips and inhale her spicy scent. It was all too easy to imagine, and it cut through him like a scalpel, bringing with it fresh jabs of agony that added to the very real, gut-wrenching pain he was now feeling. Because every moment he held back and refused to Mark the couple, the pain became sharper, hotter, until it felt like someone had set his insides on fire.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. Biting down hard on the inside of his cheek, he ran forward and pushed the couple, laying his hands on their shoulders and bursting between them like a levee break. Ignoring the girl’s surprised cries and the guy’s shouted threats, Eli kept sprinting like something was chasing him until he stumbled over his own feet and went flying. But instead of hitting the ground, he hit his own bedroom floor, where he lay, stunned and panting, for less than a minute before bolting for the toilet to heave. Fortunately, Galena had already gone back to her lab for the night and hadn’t had to witness her brother falling apart.

As he rode the bus to Chinatown, he wondered what had happened to the couple, if they had succumbed to heart attacks like the old man. That wouldn’t really make sense, but all the same, Eli hoped Karen and Daniel had a few more hours together, maybe had a chance to make love one more time. He prayed that when the end did come, it was quick, taking them both at once so neither had to endure the knowledge that the other was lost.

Rig 436 was parked in its usual spot, and when Eli saw Cacy’s bowed head through one of the small side windows, his breath caught. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and there were circles beneath them. Her beautiful face was pale and drawn, like
she’d
lived a decade in the last twenty-four hours. She looked like how he felt.

It didn’t make him want her any less.

Someone bumped into him from behind, and Eli swung around with an instinctive growl.

Len smiled his ugly smile and held up a bottle of Powderkleen. “My rig needs a spit shine, Sergeant. Since you and your partner injured me in an unprovoked attack, it’s the least you can do.”

Eli was certain he felt his fingernails elongating and sharpening. “I’m busy. Sorry.” He made it two steps before the night supervisor’s broad hand closed over his shoulder and spun him around. Len’s eyes widened as he stared at Eli’s face, but Eli couldn’t make himself care. He drew back his fist—

“Stop!” shouted Cacy as she shoved Eli, breaking his laser focus on tearing Len apart. She whirled to face Len. “Clean your own fucking rig,” she barked. “Ask my partner to do your dirty work one more time and I will hurt you in a permanent way.”

Len tried to sneer, but
he’d
gone pale. His mud-colored eyes darted back and forth between Eli and Cacy. “You two fucking deserve each other,” he said hoarsely, then turned and stalked away, still clutching the bottle of Powderkleen.

Eli’s gaze was fixed on the floor as he drew deep breaths through his nose, determined not to let Cacy see how close he was to ripping the arms off that asshole’s gorilla-like body. He knew that his eyes were glowing red and if he lifted his head,
she’d
see him for the monster he was now. He couldn’t bear it if she looked at him the way Len just had.

The screech of the wireless alert jerked Eli’s head up, and to his relief, the world wasn’t stained red. He sprinted for the rig, Cacy right next to him. Their shift had begun.

Over the next several hours, they went on five calls, never looking at each other, never speaking apart from their communication over patients. A badly broken leg. A nasty bolt-gun injury. A heart attack. A car accident. A near electrocution. Each time they pulled into the hospital bay with a live patient, Eli breathed a sigh of relief.

But on their sixth call of the night, what he saw on the
videowall
caused his stomach to drop. Twisted metal jutted up from the sidewalk in jagged spires, and people were gathered around it, shaking their heads and screaming. “One unit to the corner of Oak and Ash. Construction-site accident. Two reported casualties. Fire crews on scene.”

“Eli.” Cacy’s voice cut him like a whip. “Get your ass in gear. We’re up again.” She ran for the ambulance.

Just as Cacy fired up the engine, he swung himself into the passenger seat and fastened his seat belt. She stomped on the gas, and the ambulance lurched forward, its sirens wailing.

It was the first time
he’d
really looked at her since the shift started, and now he was unable to tear his eyes away. Her hair was in a high ponytail, cascading down her neck in thick waves. He remembered what it felt like to bury his fingers in those silky locks. He remembered it brushing over his chest as she crawled up his body.

Then he remembered that
he’d
never feel those things again, and that gave him the strength to look away.

The streets of Chinatown streaked by, the residents walking the sidewalks like life was normal, like it could go on that way forever, like the messengers of death didn’t walk among them. He had forgotten how that felt; even when he was human,
he’d
carried an awareness of death with him every day.

Cacy glanced at him from out of the corner of her eye. “I was surprised you came in today. I figured you’d want to watch over Galena now that you know—”

“Now that I know someone’s trying to kill her? Moros has one of his personal guards watching her while I’m at work.”

Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “And you trust him?”

Eli sighed. “I don’t think he would have gone to the trouble of making me a Ker and keeping me around if he wanted to kill Galena.” He stared down at his hands, squinting at them in the glare and flash of the street signs and headlights, wondering if he was imagining the shadows of razor-like claws cast across the dash. He crossed his arms and tucked his hands against his sides.

“This one looks bad. Are you up for it?” she asked, showing she knew him well enough to understand he was close to the edge. Her voice was even, but he knew
her
well enough now to understand she was working hard to keep it that way.

“I’ll be fine,” he answered as casually as possible. “I’m the
s . . .”
The words died on his lips. He wasn’t the same, and they both knew it. “I’ll be fine.”

Cacy blinked rapidly and nodded. “Good. Get your gloves on and get ready.”

Eli silently obeyed, wondering if she shuddered with disgust as he brushed past her, focusing his attention on his work so he didn’t have to see it if she did. Cacy pulled the rig up to the curb and joined him in the back, her movements precise, quick, and calm. He couldn’t help being haunted by her intoxicating scent. Then he opened the rear door and saw, lying on the sidewalk, a very familiar-looking beaded green purse.

He and Cacy hopped down from the back of the rig, and the firefighters cleared a path for them through the crowd. One of them explained what had happened: A crane had broken loose from one of the upper floors of the apartment building at the corner. It had fallen several stories, dragging with it the attached load of steel beams. All of that had landed on the sidewalk, and bystanders said there were at least two people buried in the rubble.

The firefighters had already shifted several of the beams and part of the crane wreckage using their ladder truck as well as some of the construction equipment on the scene. Cacy made a sound low in her throat as she reached the edge of the wreckage and saw what awaited them. She shouldered a burly firefighter aside and knelt by a limp, crushed arm. The hand was upturned, fingers curled in on themselves like a dead bug, sparkly green fingernail polish chipped and flecked with drying blood. Cacy took a pulse and shook her head. “Where’s the other? You said there were two.”

Eli stepped back, his chest caving in. He had done this. He had somehow caused this disaster and brought about the deaths of this young couple. Karen and Daniel. Their names echoed in his head.

A cool hand closed around his wrist, and he jolted back into awareness to find Cacy looking up at him with a solemn expression. “Two fatalities. I need your help to load them up. There were a lot of close calls, but no one else was hurt.”

She squeezed his arm, and somehow her touch made it possible for Eli to get back to work. He and Cacy carefully loaded up the almost unrecognizable bodies of the couple while the firefighters continued to clear the rubble. The clang of the rear doors closing had a disturbing finality to it.

Cacy was quiet on the drive to the hospital and didn’t once glance over at him. Which was good, because one look from her and he might have disappeared, might have wished himself deep into the Veil, far from anywhere
she’d
ever think to find him. Not that
she’d
look. How could she be anything but glad if he disappeared? He rubbed at that now-familiar pain in his chest and wondered if his missing soul was like a phantom limb. Maybe it would hurt him for the rest of his existence.

At the hospital, they unloaded the bodies and delivered them to the morgue. Cacy drove them back to the station. As soon as she parked the rig, Eli was up, planning to grab the cleaning supplies and sanitize the rig to keep his mind busy. But Cacy put her hand on his arm as he tried to get out, and he froze.

“We have other things to do,” she said softly, looking at him like he should know what she was talking about.

She sighed. “I have to go guide those souls, Eli. I can feel them waiting for me. And I can tell by the way you’re acting that you Marked them. You should come, too.”

He slumped in the seat. “Why? Don’t you think I’ve done enough?” he asked bitterly.

“No, I don’t think you have. You have to come get your commission.”

“I don’t want it.”

Her fingers tightened over his arm. “You’re coming,” she said fiercely. “That recovery took forever, and our shift’s almost over. I’m clocking us out early. Wait here. And don’t you
dare
disappear.”

For some reason, he obeyed her.

She came back less than a minute later and practically dragged him into the back of the rig. She unsnapped her Scope from the chain around her neck, opened the portal, and held it out. “Get in there. Unless you want to travel on your own?”

He could have, but he wanted to spend every possible second in her presence. He poked his head through the portal and stepped into the squishy, chilled gray world of the Veil. Cacy followed him. She opened another portal, and both of them stepped out into a street. Karen and Daniel were standing next to a storefront. It was a bakery, and in the window was a ridiculously enormous wedding cake. It was the store
they’d
come out of when Eli first started following them.
He’d
never felt more vile.

Cacy walked up to them. “Hi, folks,” she said cheerfully. “I’m here to show you where to go.”

She flipped her Scope so that the set of scales was facing up and brushed her thumb over its surface. Blinding, shimmering white light appeared at its center, and Cacy smiled. Eli watched her with a hopeless hunger, wishing he could smother his desperate desire to touch her.

She stepped in front of the couple. “You’re going to love this,” she said with a wistful expression.

She pulled her Scope wide, and Karen and Daniel gasped, their faces lighting up as they saw where they were going. They hugged each other tightly, tears of joy streaming from their eyes. Daniel took Karen’s face in his hands and kissed her gently. “You first, baby. I’ll be right behind you.”

Cacy held the Scope for Karen, lowered the ring over the
woman’s
body, and held the ring in front of her so she could catch the heavy gold coin that came flying out a second later. Then she turned to Daniel, who thanked her and stood still as Cacy lowered the ring over his head and captured the coin that flew out in his wake.

Cacy compacted the Scope down to pendant size and snapped it back onto the chain. She flipped one of the coins at Eli, and he caught it by sheer reflex. It chilled his palm and felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

His reward for being a killer.

Judging from the frustrated look on her face, Cacy was reading him like a book. “You have to stop beating yourself up and get used to this, Eli. This is what we do, and it’s not wrong or bad. Do you know what happens to people who are fated to die but don’t? Have you thought about that?”