The Taste of Night (14 page)

“You’re treacherous,” Hunter whispered, giving me the space I wanted, the jaw I’d just been caressing clenched hard in the dying light.

“You’re an opportunist,” I replied, letting Ben’s image fuel my indignation.

Hunter shook his head and gave a mirthless laugh as he turned away. “I’m just a man,” he said, and the soft vulnerability shocked me into silence. I swallowed down the lump that’d suddenly grown in my throat, and resumed breathing as I watched him leave, thunder rumbling along the already thinning clouds above. Once alone, I slumped against the wall, and let the cool concrete seep into my skin. I remained there until the sky was again arching and wide, spread out above me like a blank slate. Then I went to join the others like nothing had happened. As if I was fine.

As if storm clouds and superheroes weren’t complicated, treacherous, tempting things.

“What, in this particular Universe, were you thinking?”

I’d been back in the sanctuary just long enough to take a shower before my reaming began. Warren stood before me in the astrolab, a dome-shaped room with a ceiling of stars, though right now the bright lights were whitewashing the galaxy into oblivion. The room was scattered with books and papers and maps, pencils, rulers, scales…all more mathematical than mystical. This was Tekla’s office, where she mapped out her natal charts and made her predications. Currently, though, she was observing Warren and me from a stool in the corner like a bird on a perch, and damned if she wasn’t the most watchful, calculating creature I knew.

If she
were
avian, though, she wouldn’t have been a bird of prey. No, she was small and brown, like a malnourished sparrow; and though she’d lost some of the gauntness she’d possessed when I’d first met her months before, she was still sharp-featured, with lines of perpetual worry and fatigue webbing her eyes. The others assured me she’d always looked this way; that her son’s death last year had only accented what was already there. The lines were a product of
knowing too much of fate’s design…and being able to do too little about it. I looked to Tekla for help, but it was clear we weren’t going to have any sisterhood moments right now. Her eyes were trained on me just as narrowly as our leader’s, and I swallowed hard as I looked down and picked some dried cement out from under my fingernails.

Okay, so it’d been stupid. My shoe was stuck in the boneyard’s perimeter, and while that could be taken for a mason’s mistake—if you didn’t look too closely—the backpack that’d half made it into the boneyard with me was clearly made of material, zippers, leather, and lacing. Apparently bits of it were showing on the outside of the boneyard wall as well, but the bigger problem was that its presence there had kept the barrier separating the sanctuary from the rest of the world from fully closing. Oops.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, but I was having trouble keeping the contriteness in my voice by this point. Warren heard it, which only furthered his tirade.

“…and to use a conduit of Light to purposely destroy a wall meant to protect your troop from the Shadow’s harm is not only irresponsible, but borders on the treasonous!”

“The barrier’s not destroyed,” Tekla said from her corner stool.

Now he whirled on her. “It’s compromised!”

“I was angry!” I said in my defense. “I just saw the cab through the dust and took aim. Besides,
you
cross over on foot all the time.”

“I follow the route set by Gregor. And I make sure the barrier’s closed behind me!”

“Enough.” Tekla stood and began walking toward me. I automatically shrank back. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her; I did. She was the troop’s Seer, and a bit off because of it, but she was powerful. So much so that her deep lavender aura was visible to me even with my diminished abilities. If I stared at her too long, her outline burned beneath my lids every time I blinked. I held my breath now, anticipating the
worst. “I’ll work with the Archer on rebuilding the breach—agents should know how to repair walls if they’re going to tear them down.” I swallowed hard at the censure in her tone, looking away. “And then we’ll work on controlling her temper.”

My gaze swung back to her suspiciously.

Warren screwed up his face, just as perplexed. “That’s it?”

Tekla tilted her head at him. “It’s timely, don’t you think? There’s the maze in the boneyard representing the Tulpa’s labyrinth. And other walls that need to be constructed and deconstructed at will…”

Warren’s expression immediately cleared, and he smiled as he looked back at me. “The barrier…among other things.”

“Hey, I enjoy cryptic banter as much as the next girl,” I said with mock cheerfulness before letting my face fall. “But someone wanna clue me in here?”

Tekla turned her sharp gaze on me again. “You’re going to remain within the sanctuary until we’re sure you can’t be goaded into jeopardizing our troop’s security.”

“I haven’t—” I was about to say I hadn’t jeopardized anything, but I had. Never mind the wall…I’d let a Shadow initiate live in hopes she’d feed me more information about Joaquin’s whereabouts. I’d then met him in neutral territory the next day. Wait until Warren and Tekla found out about
that
.

“I haven’t hurt anyone,” I said instead, which was true. It just happened to include Regan, a mortal enemy. So I changed the subject. “And what about Chandra? She tried to tattoo skid marks on my chest.”

“Which you’d have recovered from.” Warren blew the issue off, and waved away my gaping protest. “Chandra’s going to be a different color than the rest of the human race thanks to your hijinks in the practice maze. I think that makes you two even.”

Sure, because a two-ton vehicle and a paintball were sooooo similar.

Warren read my thoughts and smiled thinly. “But what
Tekla’s saying is this: the second sign of the Zodiac says that Shadow and Light will square off on a cursed battlefield. In the Zodiac mythology
battlefield
is often equated with
playing field.
”

“Yeah, ’cuz war’s just so much fun.”

Warren ignored me. “The maze out front is a mockup of the Tulpa’s labyrinth based on blueprints seized at Valhalla. We need someone to learn how to get to the center of that maze in record time, and this is the perfect time to train for it. The paranormal world is quiet, the Shadows have been in hiding since your accession—”

I snorted before I could help myself.

Warren froze. “What?”

I bit my lip, trying to keep my face straight. “Well, you don’t really think they’re in hiding, do you? Quivering in their shadowy little lair?”

“You know differently?” he asked shortly.

“No,” I said, because I didn’t. Not for sure. But Regan had hinted at some evil plan, so I did too. It eased my conscience a bit at having let her live. “But I doubt they’ve just given up wreaking chaos and destruction in favor of another hobby.”

“Oh, but they have. At least for the time being. It’s clear the Tulpa wants you to switch sides, so he’s pulled back, probably hoping to lull you into thinking he’s not all that bad, that they’re just like us.” He rolled his eyes, and Regan’s words again skittered through my mind.
You think we’re wired differently than you, but it’s not true…we’re like you
. Oblivious to my thoughts, Warren shot me a stubbled grin. “As long as the Zodiac is balanced—twelve of them, twelve of us—then there’s peace in the mortal world. That’s all I care about.”

It was true; Warren wasn’t one of those, myself included, who thought the best way to save humanity was to annihilate the Shadow side. No, he believed the entire Universe was one giant scale that needed to be kept in balance, that even he was just ballast to be positioned at a fixed place and time to keep his troop, his valley, and his mortals safe.

I gave up trying to argue with him on that point. “So an entire troop of habituated bad guys is going to stop causing mayhem and pain just because one dude wants to win me over?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t think so.” I muttered, shaking my head as he dropped into a swivel chair next to Tekla’s desk. “It feels like the calm before the storm to me. It feels like they’re coming after us.”

“And you have so much experience in these things, do you?” He leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his neck.

Now my voice was hard and loud. “Hey, I may be relatively new to this game of paranormal hide-and-seek, but I’ve spent my entire adulthood on the offense against danger and attack, and my gut is telling me something’s going to happen, and that we won’t know what it is until it’s too late.”

Warren gave his head a sharp jerk, causing his lank hair to sway against his shoulders. “It doesn’t work that way, Olivia. As long as our numbers are equal, there’s cosmic balance in the city. There’s no way they can attack us directly. We’re too strong.”

I had to admit it seemed far-fetched, even with Regan’s warning. How could they wipe us all out in one fell swoop? They had no leverage. We were stronger than we’d been in years.

Tekla, who’d returned to her perch and had been observing all this with a sort of detached scrutiny, cleared her throat. “Perhaps Olivia’s objections have more to do with a personal desire than any intuitive hunch.”

I stiffened, and the room got very still, very quiet. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about Xavier. The Tulpa. Joaquin.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re saying we should destroy them before they have a chance to do the same to us, but what else do you want? Vengeance perhaps? We’d understand if you did.”

My jaw clenched involuntarily, and I forced it to relax before whispering. “No. You wouldn’t understand.”

She tilted her head to the side, still birdlike. Still watchful. “I too have lost someone dear to me. And at the hands of the Shadow Aquarian.”

Yes, I wanted to say, but after Joaquin murdered your son you’d been safely cocooned in this sanctuary. I’d had to go it alone in a world of Xaviers and Joaquins and Tulpas.

“Are we done here?” I asked Warren, heading to the door before he could answer. I didn’t look at Tekla at all.

“Olivia. Olivia!” His voice followed me out and into the hallway, and I heard the uneven gait of his limp, a pronounced slap-and-drag, as he ran to catch up to me. “Jo.”

My real name stopped me. I turned to face him in the sterile hallway, my face as blank as the concrete walls. “Why?” I asked him harshly. “Why wait for the Shadows to strike first? Why not head them off?”

Warren suddenly looked as tired as he did grave. “I want peace.”

“And I want them all dead.” The words shot from my mouth, and I looked away before Warren could see how much I truly meant them.

He ran a hand over his face and sighed. “If you just trust me, and wait, I swear you’ll have your revenge. Xavier’s a mortal, and your hatred of him is petty, and must be let go. But,” he said, before I could protest, “the Tulpa will pay. Joaquin
will pay
.”

I searched his lined and sunburned face, and inhaled deeply to be sure he was telling the truth. I’d have taken him at his word months before, but Joaquin’s words had wormed their way into my brain, and now I had to wonder.

He lies to you. He doesn’t want you to know the extent of your powers. He thinks you’ll turn on him.

And I looked at him then, really looked at him; seeing past the lank and greasy hair, the face that was usually grime-streaked and the body normally draped in a beggar’s clothes, and I saw the man who led this city’s fight against evil, one who’d tricked me into this lifestyle because it suited his troop’s needs, but who’d also held my hand in
those early days, saved my life, and told me about my fucked-up parentage.

Including the fact that my mother was still alive.

But he asked too much, I thought, turning away from him so he couldn’t see the tears stinging my eyes. I’d joined his troop, learned the truth about my mother, and took up the star sign she’d abandoned in order to keep me safe. I’d accepted that she didn’t want to be found, and agreed not to look for her. For now. I’d given up a life that may not have been perfect, but it’d been mine. I was dead to all those who’d known or ever loved me, and the things I loved, like photography, were dead to me.

I’d even stayed away from Ben.

And even if Warren was right about the Tulpa—and he’d really stopped targeting the agents of Light because of me—he was dead wrong about Xavier. He hadn’t seen the way the man had treated me, or the rampage he’d gone on after my mother had left. Warren didn’t know about the piles of clothes he’d burned, the jewelry he’d given to the maids, or the pictures he’d made Olivia and me cut up while he watched.

And he’d especially watched me.

Because even though Xavier knew nothing of superheroes, portals, and paranormal battles, the timing of my mother’s disappearance hadn’t been lost upon him. His eyes burned hard and hot into mine as he slammed album after album down in front of me, studying my reaction like I might know where she’d gotten to. Like it was my fault she’d gone.

“Not like that, Joanna!” he said, wrenching the scissors from my hand so the photo I was halfheartedly holding fluttered to the ground. “If you want people to respect you, and not walk all over you”—because, of course, the rape had been my fault as well—“you have to destroy them utterly! You have to obliterate them from this earth. Like this.” And he cut and cut until my mother’s face lay like confetti at our feet.

Joaquin had nearly killed me just because I was Zoe Archer’s daughter.

Xavier had made me feel guilty because of it.

And the Tulpa had been behind it all.

So they’d all pay, I thought, smiling in spite of myself. With their lives, their money, their power. With whatever they valued most.

“Okay,” I finally lied, turning back in time to see the relief flooding Warren’s face. “Tell Tekla I’ll start tomorrow.”

He nodded, satisfied with that, and turned from me to limp away. I watched him disappear back into the astrolab, and waited until the door shut behind him. I’d stay in the sanctuary and train like he wanted, but I’d do it for my own reasons. I needed to be stronger and smarter from now on, so I’d push myself, study my lineage and the legacy of the Kairos, and I’d learn what I needed to from Tekla. So that soon, very soon, I could go after Joaquin myself.

The smart thing would be to retire to my room for the rest of the evening. It would give me a chance to calm down, give Hunter time for a cold shower, and nullify the possibility of running into Chandra…which was the last thing I needed right now.

Naturally I did no such thing.

Instead I slipped along a corridor where a red neon stripe skated along the floor, lighting my way, marking my forward progress while simultaneously dimming behind me. I ran my hand against the wall, letting symbols for horoscopic glyphs, planets, polarities, and the four elements appear and disappear beneath my touch. With the floor glowing beneath me like I was starring in some old Michael Jackson video, I halted in front of a solid concrete wall, flicked my wrist, and the wall folded back to reveal a gilt-glass elevator. When something sleek rubbed against my left calf, I jumped and looked down to find a tawny feline glaring up at me, poised on her back haunches, eyes locked on mine.