Reliquary (Reliquary Series Book 1) (19 page)

He offered his arm and led me farther into the room as even more guests crowded in. People were starting to disperse into various other rooms, though, and I could hear fast-paced club music issuing from somewhere down the wide corridor to our left. The lights had dimmed, and I sensed that the party was just kicking into gear.

And I had a master of manipulation at my side and desperately needed to stay sharp. I had no idea what Asa was up to, but seeing as he’d told me the relic we were after was right here in this space, I had a feeling he was going to make a play for it. I had to do whatever I could to help. But was I supposed to distract
everyone
? That seemed like a tall order given the sprawling layout of this place and the lack of any visible fire alarms. So was I supposed to distract someone specific . . . ? Wait.
I might have been a sensor trying to do my job,
Asa had said.

He must have wanted me to find the sensor and keep him occupied so he wouldn’t notice what Asa was up to.

I glanced around the jam-packed area. Asa had looked down this hallway when he’d sensed his opposite number, but that was the only clue I had—apart from a few potentially telltale signs.

“So . . . ,” I said as we headed for the dance floor. “Seems like a lot of people work for Mr. Montri. Do you each have your own specialties?” As we walked, I eyed every person we passed.

Ho-Jun laid his hand firmly over mine. “Ah, Miss Halsworth. I’m sure you will agree that such a topic is boring in the extreme, particularly when we have so many other options available to us.” He gave me a slow, appreciative once-over.

Crap.
If I disagreed, he’d realize I had some resistance to his magic. “Yeah. Boring in the extreme. Lots of better things to do.” I beamed up at him, focusing on his handsome face and trying not to think about how his touch was making my skin crawl—not to mention my toe, which was raw from how hard I was having to press on those damn bristles. “So how about a dance?”

Ho-Jun smiled and guided me onto the dance floor. “That’s better. I hope you’re a good dancer.”

“Oh, honey,” I said. “Wait till you see my moves.”

Okay, so, this was something I could do. After years of dance-squad training and more than my share of frat parties, I could grind, shimmy, and drop with the best of them. But Ho-Jun was way close, and the more he touched me, the more my thoughts went hazy, threatening to make me forget my purpose. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I shifted into a hip-rolling salsa and scraped my stiletto heel hard against his ankle.

“A-pa!”
He stumbled back and lifted his pant leg, revealing a gash that was already oozing blood.

“Oh my God,” I wailed. “I’m so sorry!”

He held up his hands, looking pained. “It’s all right. But I need to get this cleaned up. You stay here and dance until I return.”

Feeling triumphant (okay, and just a little tipsy as the rum kicked in), I saluted him. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

His brow furrowed.

“I-I mean . . . I’ll stay here and dance until you return.”

He frowned, but then nodded and headed back out into the hallway. As soon as he was out of sight, I did return to dancing, but I began to make my way around the floor, looking for anyone who might be this mysterious magic sensor Asa had felt. But everyone seemed to be having a damn good time. No one had that hollow-eyed stare or uncoordinated walk that Tao had had, and no one was sweating bullets like Asa always did.

How the heck was I supposed to distract someone I couldn’t find?

As the minutes slid by, my frustration mounted—this was the one thing Asa needed me to do while he attempted to steal the relic that could save Ben’s life. And here I was, twerking around like an idiot and wasting precious time. Just as I turned to escape into the corridor, though, Ho-Jun appeared in the archway, his dark eyes scanning the floor for me. I lurched backward, deeper into the room, squeezing myself between a few guys who seemed pretty darn happy about my arrival. I peeked under their arms to see Ho-Jun turning in place, his tapered jaw clenched.

If he found me now, I was in serious trouble.

With my heart pounding, I made it to the very back of the room and started to edge around the side, heading past a long table stocked with all sorts of goodies like I’d seen at the Phan Club, which I suspected were coated with Ekstazo magic. There was a small crowd around that table, and I slithered in between people so busy reaching for ecstasy that they barely noticed me shoving in among them. Each yard covered was precious ground. But then I neared the end of the table and caught a glimpse of Ho-Jun, still on the dance floor, twirling his finger near his head as he spoke to the two guys I’d used to camouflage my escape—he had to be describing my hair. As they all turned, looking for me, I pushed my way to the edge of the crowd around the goodie table, planning to leap back onto the floor and dance like my life depended on it.

I never made it, though—my toe caught on someone’s shoe, toppling me. As I fell, I instinctively grabbed for something to keep me from hitting the floor, and my fingers closed around an arm. Instead of holding me up, though, its owner let out a cry and pitched forward. I landed on my back.

He landed on top of me.

“Sorry,” I said with a wheeze as my unwilling companion raised his head.

The light caught hollow cheeks sheened with sweat, black hair practically dripping with it. “Are you all right?” the man asked in soft, heavily accented English. His eyes met mine, and I was struck by how deep the circles beneath them were.

Unbelievable. “Are you?”

He gave me a hesitant, puzzled-looking smile. “I am. Thank you for asking.” He braced his hands on either side and lifted his body from mine, then helped me up, his fingers trembling. He removed several little fluorescent hoops that he’d been wearing around his arm and tossed them back onto the table, shivering as he freed himself. Just as I wondered if he was hanging out by the goodie table because it was more tolerable than anywhere else, he pointed down at my right shoe—the heel had snapped clean off. “I’ve damaged you, I’m afraid.”

I chuckled and pulled my shoes off, carefully keeping my new companion between me and the pissed-off Knedas who was looking for me. “You probably saved me. Dancing in these was making my life flash before my eyes.”

“But you made it look like so much fun.”

I paused before tossing my useless shoes in a corner. “You were watching me?”

“It was very entertaining. My name is Daeng. And you are?”

“Ma—Katie.”

“Makatie?”

“Um. Just Katie.” I chuckled nervously. “Rum does funny things to my tongue.”

His eyebrows arched as his gaze fell to my mouth. “Does it now?”

I supposed this counted as distraction, though I really needed to make sure this guy was actually the one. And I needed to do it somewhere else, because Ho-Jun had freaking disappeared, and I had no idea where he’d gone.

“May I get you another drink, then, Just Katie?”

I slipped my arm through his. “Please do, Mr. Daeng.”

Daeng began to steer me out of the room, and I fought the urge to glance behind me every other step. “I haven’t seen you before,” he said. His fingers closed around my wrist, firm and clammy. “I could have sworn you were an Ekstazo, but you have no magic at all.”

And there it was. This dude was totally a magic sensor. I pressed down the urge to whoop with happiness. “I make my own magic,” I said, putting my hand over his and hoping that whatever distraction Asa needed, it didn’t have to go on too long. I kind of hated to tease this guy.

Daeng stared with something like wonder at my fingers curled over his. “I can believe that. You have certainly raised my spirits tonight.”

I grinned, even as I felt a certain sad sympathy right alongside my jittery thrill that I seemed to have his full attention. But I didn’t get to enjoy more than a moment of that victory, because Daeng’s forehead crinkled and he peered toward the main room, where I’d left Asa.

I stepped into his path, desperate to keep his eyes on me. “Should we get something to eat? Or drink? Or . . .” I glanced toward the dance floor and was horrified to see Ho-Jun standing beneath the archway—his eyes on me. “Or how about we just go in here?” I grabbed Daeng’s hand and tried to pull him toward another room, this one full of Lava Lamps and soft couches. But he was still staring toward the main entrance.

“What brought you here tonight, Katie?” he asked, frowning.

“I’m just here with my boyfriend. He’s a businessman. He does . . . business.” I sounded like an idiot, and probably looked like one, too, as I tugged on Daeng, trying to draw his attention back to me. Ho-Jun was now headed my way, limping slightly. “But we’re not that serious,” I babbled as I attempted to pull Daeng toward the Lava Lamp room. “I mean. He’d like it to be serious, but I just don’t—”

“Excuse me,” Daeng said, releasing my wrist.

“No, wait—”

“Stop right there,” said Ho-Jun, but as he reached our side, Daeng made a little choked noise and pointed down the hallway.

“Should have sensed it earlier,” he said in a hoarse whisper, throwing me a suspicious glance.

Ho-Jun’s hand closed hard over my upper arm. “What is it?” he asked Daeng. “Is it the sniffer? Is he trying to take something out?”

Oh God. This wasn’t a pawnshop where I could just run out the door. If Asa had already swiped the relic and headed out without me, it would be a lot harder to catch up with him. Especially since Ho-Jun held my arm in a bone-crushing grip.

“Not out,” Daeng said, his eyes going round. “
In.
They’re coming. Very many and very fast.”

Ho-Jun scowled and looked around. “What?”

Daeng took a deep breath, his whole body shuddering. And then he raised his arms and shouted, “Headsmen!”

That word was all it took to make the whole place erupt with panic.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Everyone tried to make it off the dance floor at once, plowing into people who had been streaming up the hallway. Ho-Jun and Daeng had forgotten all about me and were shouting in various languages, waving their arms and shoving to get through the melee. I was carried along by the jostle of elbows and shoulders, yelping as my bare feet were trampled by hard soles. My breath burst from me in gasps as I craned my neck and tried to stay upright.

“—must have called too much attention to himself,” said an American partygoer, who’d pressed in just behind me.

“Or he has something too hot to handle and they know it,” said his friend.

“If they catch us here, we’re fucked.” The guy muscled past, pushing me against a wall as an alarm started to blare.

The intensity of the jabbing, shoving, twisting, pushing of the crowd seemed to double, everyone frantic to escape. My ears rang as I tried to keep up. We were nearly to the main lounge, where the room opened up and people were sprinting away in all directions. I had no idea where the Headsmen would be coming from, or how many of them there would be, but from the way people were acting, I really didn’t want to meet them. I had no idea where to go, though, or where Asa was. Had he finished his meeting with Montri? Would they be caught together?

My feet got tangled with someone behind me and I fell forward just as we reached the lounge. The sound of shattering glass nearby wrenched a scream from my throat. Someone had cut the lights, so I headed for the patio, flinching as several sharp cracks filled the night, punctuated by shrieking. Someone was shouting something into a bullhorn, but not in English. I heaved myself up and ran for the outside. The cement was rough against my soles as I emerged into the humid air. Flashing red and blue lights shone from either side of the building, and as I peered upriver, I could see more coming.

“There you are,” Asa said as he came sprinting out of the lounge, barely slowing down as he hooked an arm around my waist and propelled me along a side path, soft leaves brushing at my calves as I ran. He was carrying something that jingled faintly with every footfall.

“What’s happening? What did you do?”

“What does it look like?” His crimson shirt was soaked and he was breathing hard, wheezing every once in a while. “I’m getting us out of here.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No time,” he said, stopping abruptly and pressing me against a wall as he peered around the corner of the building. “Okay, come on. We’re going over the wall.”

I didn’t bother to question him. As he ducked low and ran behind a row of cars that had been parked along the curving drive in front of the building, I followed him as closely as I could. On the other side of the cars, the red and blue lights painted the front of the high-rise. People were shouting and screaming. A few more sharp cracks nearby made me reach up and grab Asa’s hand. They had to be gunshots. Asa pulled me forward, tucking us behind a security booth a few yards from the eight-foot wall that surrounded the property. There were no guards in the booth—they were probably dealing with the horde of Headsmen that had descended.

“I don’t know if I can get over that,” I whispered, eyeing the wall.

“Sure you can.” Asa stepped back and ran at the wall, planting his foot and shooting upward. His fingers hooked over the top, and he pulled himself onto the edge. Then he reached down and wiggled his fingers. “I’m gonna help, though.”

I grabbed his hand and used my feet to walk myself up the wall, but a shout from behind me nearly made me let go. They’d probably seen my white dress, like a beacon in the night. Asa yanked me up roughly, then dropped to the ground on the other side and pulled me down on top of him as shots rang out. I stifled a scream as we ran across the street, into a warren of dingy buildings that smelled like rotting garbage. I yelped as I stepped on a piece of broken glass, but Asa kept yanking on me. “Can’t stop, Mattie, not n—”

Two shots cracked into the corrugated metal just above my head, and Asa cursed. I looked up to see his hands in the air as a white guy in a tan suit walked toward us, his gun aimed at Asa. He was blond, handsome but with some wear on him. He was squinting into the shadows where we’d run.

“You gonna shoot me?” Asa asked.

The man didn’t lower his gun. “Step into the light,” he said tersely.

I put my hands in the air and stayed next to Asa as we took a few steps forward into a slant of light from a streetlamp. As soon as the blond man saw us, he lowered his gun, his face alive with emotion. “Asa?”

“Yep.” Asa let his arms fall to his sides, and so did I, but he didn’t look at me. “Long time, Keenan. I’d heard you’d been stationed out here.”

The lines around Keenan’s eyes deepened. “What are you doing here?” He looked over his shoulder, back at the Montri high-rise, where screams and gunshots still echoed. “Were you in there?”

“And if I was?”

“We got a tip that there was major contraband—a relic we’ve been hunting for a long time.”

I tensed, but Asa smirked. “Didn’t take you long to pull this little raid together. I’m impressed.”

“You called it in, didn’t you?” I said quietly, a sick mixture of confusion and dread tingling across my skin. “That’s what you were doing right before you kicked the phone into the river.”

Keenan’s gaze shifted to me as I stood there, one foot cocked upward and bleeding, my short dress torn. “Don’t you usually work alone?” he asked Asa.

“She’s not work.” Asa’s voice was tight and strained, and he leaned forward to brace his palms on his thighs. As he did, a necklace fell from the front of his shirt and hung down, glinting in the light. It looked like a locket, but a strange one—the chain was thick and sturdy, and the pendant part was nearly as big as a golf ball. “Mattie, can you . . .” He sank to one knee, and his back arched like he was going to throw up.

I threw Keenan a careful glance, but his gun was still lowered, so I rushed forward and pulled the necklace off Asa. It was surprisingly light, but had left an angry red line across the back of his neck.

Keenan stuck out his hand. “I’ll take that.”

I didn’t move. If we didn’t take it to Frank, Ben might be killed. There was no way I was giving it up without a fight.

Next to me, Asa was slowly getting to his feet. “What’s it worth?” he asked.

Keenan eyed the relic in my hand. “It’s priceless.”

“And you know what it is.”

Keenan nodded. He holstered his gun. “Of course you’d be the one to find it.” His pale eyes were intense as he stared at Asa.

Asa rubbed at his chest and winced. “What’s the bounty?”

“Asa?” I asked, holding the necklace a little tighter. “What are you doing?”

“Ten million,” said Keenan. “British pounds, not dollars.”

Asa whistled low, then stretched his arms. “I knew I was being underpaid.” He casually reached down and started to unbutton the front of his suspenders, leaving them hanging over his shoulders. “Do you have the cash on hand?”

“Asa, no,” I said in a choked voice. “Please.”

Keenan smiled as he looked me over. “So much pain. It’s personal, why you’re here.”

“She’s engaged to my brother,” Asa said. “Brindle nabbed him to pull me in.”

Keenan looked surprised. “Ben? Did you two reconcile, then?”

“Nope.”

“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Keenan said quietly. “Not after what he did to you.”

I took a step away from Asa. “You said it was them and
us
,” I whispered. “You said it was going to be us.”

Asa wouldn’t look at me, but Keenan was staring. “You actually trusted him. You feel so betrayed.”

“Keenan’s an emotion sen—” Asa began.

“I figured that out,” I snapped. “I’m not stupid.”

“But you feel that way,” said Keenan. “You should know you’re not the first person Asa’s fooled.” He let out a sigh. “And you won’t be the last.”

“Shut up, Keenan,” said Asa.

“From the moment you meet him, you can’t really help it,” Keenan continued, sounding wistful. “Even though you know you shouldn’t, you just want to trust him. Am I right?” His expression turned hard and bitter. “But you can’t.”

More gunshots rang out from beyond the wall, but whatever was going on at the compound, there was more action right here. I looked back and forth between the two men. I may not have been an emotion sensor myself, but I could still pick up the tension. The way Keenan was looking at Asa—I swear, his eyes were full of more than mistrust. They were full of . . . longing.

“Um, how do you guys know each other?”

“Do you remember the night you left?” Keenan asked Asa. “I’ll never forget. No note. Nothing.”

Asa stared stonily at him.

“I was sure you would come back at first. Or at least call.” Keenan took a step closer. We were a triangle of betrayal now, with Asa at the apex. My heart was thundering so hard I could barely hear Keenan’s next words: “It took me at least a year to realize you never would.”

Asa gave me a sidelong glance before returning his attention to Keenan. “It was just another cage,” he said softly.

Keenan grimaced, then quickly composed himself. “But tonight, you did call. And you’ve helped us find one of the four relics.”

Asa stilled. “Frank didn’t mention it was part of a set.”

“Are you telling me Brindle sent you to steal one of the original four relics without warning you?”

“The original four.” Asa scowled. “That’s a myth.”

Keenan shook his head. “We already found the Ekstazo relic.”

“Did you destroy it?” Asa asked.

Keenan’s smile was ghostly. “You can’t destroy something like this.”

I was beginning to sense Ben’s future slipping away. “Tell me what the hell is going on!” I yelled.

“Some people call us naturals,” said Keenan. “Witches, wizards, mages—so many terms to try to describe us, so many myths and only a few actual truths. And our bible is the tome of the
Essentialis Magia
.”

“Another myth,” muttered Asa.

“Pages have been found,” Keenan replied.

“And it talks about four relics?” I asked.

“It speaks to the original meaning of ‘relic’—a body part of a saint, said to have miraculous powers. Catholicism borrowed that from us.” He looked smug.

I glanced down at the pendant in my hands, a round chamber with a clasp on the side. “There’s a body part in there?”

“From the original sorcerer himself, Akakios, executed by Roman invaders over two millennia ago. The faithful embalmed his body and saved four pieces, then hid them away. Blood, brain, bone, and viscera.” Keenan was eyeing the relic with laserlike intensity. “These are sources of infinite power. All naturals born in the time since then are nourished by the power, passed from generation to generation, but we’re only faint echoes compared to the source.”

I pinched the round pendant between thumb and forefinger and shook it, listening to the contents rattle. Asa winced, and I rattled it a little harder just to hurt him. Lord knew he had hurt me. “Is that bone?”

“It just so happens it is. Strikon magic,” said Keenan, taking another step closer. “But all of the originals are encased in gold.”

I edged back, whimpering as the glass in my bleeding foot scraped the ground. No way could I run like this. And between Asa and Keenan, they could definitely take me down. I gritted my teeth to push away the pain.

“Brave,” murmured Keenan. “But you can’t escape.”

I glared at him. “You don’t care at all that a mobster kidnapped my fiancé? Aren’t you supposed to enforce the law?”

“Yeah, but whose laws?” said Asa. “Welcome to the big world, Mattie.”

I looked at Asa. “I will never forgive you for this.”

Keenan smiled sadly. “I’m so sorry for your pain. I wish there was something I could do. But I need to take the relic now. We can’t risk it falling back into the wrong hands.”

But Asa reached out and snatched the relic from my fingers. “You get it when I get paid.” His voice had gained an edge, and again, I hoped the relic was hurting him.
Bad.
“And no way are you bringing me in.”

“We could iron out the details privately, tonight. No one at the office needs to know you were the source.”

“Yeah?” Asa asked quietly, moving toward him as the relic dangled from his fingers. “Just you and me?”

It burned from my throat to my guts, especially when Keenan drew his gun and gave me a regretful look. “Yeah,” Keenan said to Asa. “Just you and me.”

As Keenan took aim, Asa pivoted and kicked the gun from his hand. Before I knew what was happening, he was behind Keenan, his loose suspenders wrapped around the man’s throat. Keenan’s eyes bulged and his face turned bright red as he clawed at Asa, who merely dragged him to the ground and tightened his grip. After a full minute of struggle, Keenan’s arms flopped to his sides, and Asa quickly let go, leaning down to put his ear to the man’s nose before sitting up again. He tossed the relic at me and dove for my foot, yanking out the piece of glass with a brutal lack of hesitation. The scream was barely out of my throat before he was pulling me to my feet.

“Is he dead?” I asked, reeling with the turnabout of the last few minutes.

“Nah,” he said, putting his arm around my waist and letting me lean on him as he guided me out of the alley. “But we’ve got a ten-minute head start, and it’ll be enough if you can move those little legs a bit faster.”

Together, we limped out to a relatively busy thoroughfare a few blocks from the high-rise, and Asa hailed a taxi, giving the driver an address different from our hotel. As we pulled away from the curb, I put my head in my hands. “Did you actually call the Headsmen?”

“Yep. You were right about that. As soon as I felt this motherfucking relic, I knew it was big. And I knew they would want it. The Headsmen seize relics that are particularly dangerous, and destroy them, which destroys the magic inside.” He frowned. “Obviously wasn’t the plan in this case.”

“But you were never planning to give it to them anyway,” I said slowly, peeking at him through the spill of curls that had fallen over my face.

He shook his head. “I called them because we never would have gotten out of Montri’s stronghold on our own, and they were our escape hatch. But it only gained us a little time.”