Ghost Town (Hound of Hades Book 3), page 6
“Don’t try to distract me with…” Kimmy’s voice trailed off as she looked down at her empty plate, then over at the pastry case. “I want to try one of those muffins. The ones with the raspberry swirl.”
I got Kimmy another pastry, and, after a second’s hesitation, got myself one too. I tried not to think about my diminishing pocket change. I went back to my search as I nibbled on the muffin. Here was someone only a block away who wanted a roommate for four weeks. That sounded promising. I clicked through to the details. Going out of town for a month. Seeking physical companionship for my partner while I am away. Must be blonde, age 22 to 27, and psychologically stable. Financial compensation a possibility. Somehow I didn’t think that was what Kimmy was looking for.
In urgent need of replacement house-sitter. Must be comfortable with large dogs. Dogs DO NOT bite. Former house-sitter is a liar. If she calls, DO NOT ANSWER. Nope. We had enough dogs to deal with as it was. Kimmy and I were lucky we had managed to get out of the apartment without them slipping out after us.
Do you look good on camera? Stay in a state-of-the-art apartment rent-free while enjoying the freedom of living in the nude! Double nope.
“This place offers a hidden camera for cheap,” said Kimmy through a mouthful of muffin.
It took me a second to realize she wasn’t talking about the ad. “What do you need a hidden camera for?”
“My apartment,” said Kimmy, as if it were obvious. “That woman said she doesn’t care about laws. That means she’s going to do something illegal sooner or later. All we need to do is catch her in the act. Then she’ll be in jail, and—”
“And then she’ll break out—Marked, remember?—and we will have turned one of our allies into an enemy.” I stopped to consider my words. “More of an enemy,” I amended. “Anyway, I told you to stop doing research.”
“You told me not to look into the spirits, and I’m not. And somebody has to do something about her. You don’t seem too worried about finding a solution.”
“Spirits first,” I said. “Then Ginevra. Don’t worry, you’ll get your apartment back.”
“You think I’m worried about the apartment? I heard the way she threatened you and Lissa.”
“I have no intention of letting her touch either of us,” I said grimly. “But the fact is, she doesn’t have the authority to cut Lissa off from Hades. The worst she could do is ban her from the temple. I don’t even know if she can remove my Mark—that sounds like more of a Guardian thing, if somebody besides Hades could even do it.”
“She said her orders came from Hades.”
“You think Hades really told her to leave the temple without its last Guardian and the only Marked who knows how things work around here? I’m willing to accept that Hades sent her here to take over as senior Marked—although you better believe I’m going to have Lissa confirm that for me—and that he wants us to fix the mess we made. As for the rest… I’m guessing she took some liberties with what Hades told her. She can try to follow through on her threats, but if Hades doesn’t want her to, then there’s nothing she can do.” At least I hoped that was the case.
“Why take the risk? Let’s make sure she never gets the chance to try.”
“I wish it were that easy. But if Hades sent her, we’re stuck with her.” I let out a heavy sigh. “And as much as I hate to admit it, we do need another Marked. Especially one who can actually communicate with Hades.”
“You’ve been doing fine without her so far.”
I thought back to two nights ago, when I had overheard two of Loki’s Marked placing bets on when Hades would lose the city and who would take over once he did. And last week, when I had fallen asleep on a stakeout after three straight days of staying awake, and woken up to find my target long gone. And my most recent conversation with Ciara, when even the flowers growing in her hair—it’s a Persephone thing—had started wilting before my eyes as she tried to convince me Persephone’s people could handle the extra strain.
“No,” I said quietly. “We haven’t been. We’ve been doing all we can, but it isn’t enough. If we keep going like this, Hades will lose the city within a year.”
I hadn’t said it out loud before. If I admitted defeat, if I showed so much as a sliver of doubt, it would spread to Lissa, and to Persephone’s temple, and to the rest of Hades’s allies. And that would only bring about the downfall that much faster. I had tried not to even let myself think it, but I’ve never been very good at lying to myself. Finally saying it aloud was a relief. Inasmuch as it could be a relief to think about how thoroughly fucked we were.
I shook off the cloud of hopelessness gathering around me, and kept going. “Hades sent her,” I said. “And I trust Hades. I don’t like her, and I don’t plan on letting her do any of the things she’s threatened to do, including keep you out of the temple. But if she’s here, she’s here for a reason. So don’t try to help me get rid of her. I’ll figure out a solution that gets your apartment back, keeps me and Lissa safe, and still gives the temple what it needs. All I need is a little time.”
Kimmy slammed her phone down so hard the table shook. “No. I’m tired of feeling helpless. I’m tired of watching Lissa collapse because the dead are trying to use her as a gate, while you tell me to wait for you to do something about it. I’m tired of seeing you stumble through the door with yet another injury that needs medical attention, and listening to you try to convince me you can take care of it yourself. You two are fighting for your lives, and you want me to keep on going about my business as if nothing has changed.”
“You want to be a part of the temple? After how much you’ve complained about how it’s getting in your way?”
“No! I want to have never met you people! But I’m part of it now, and Lissa needs somebody to protect her—and so do you, judging by how many times you come home bleeding. And I’m supposed to, what, keep on studying like the next exam is still the most important thing in my life? I’m on the verge of failing two classes, did you know that? And it’s because I don’t know how to make myself care about grades when there are life-and-death battles going on all around me. I could flunk out because of you! Do you know what that would mean for my job prospects?”
Finally, she paused for breath. I opened my mouth to argue, but realized I had nothing to say. She had a point.
And to be honest, I did need the help.
“I’ll handle Ginevra,” I said. “But if you want to look into the second spirit for me, go ahead. I still have one more thing I need to try.”
It wasn’t an option I wanted to take. I wasn’t even sure if it would work out. But it had to be better than answering one of those ads.
My phone dated back to before I died the first time, which made it more than ten years old. It would probably be cheaper and easier to get a bare-bones phone that was manufactured in the past couple of years, but this was the kind of phone I had when I died, and after how well I had cut myself off from all reminders of my past, I thought I had earned one little piece of pointless nostalgia. Even if every time I used the stupid thing, I hated it a little more.
Anyway, it was old enough that it couldn’t hold more than twenty numbers in its address book, and it was corrupted enough by now that the actual limit was more like five. It was a good thing I was antisocial. I had a total of three stored numbers. The first was Ciara. The second was Kimmy. I pulled out the phone and dialed the third.
Bastian answered on the first ring. “I was hoping you’d call.”
I didn’t waste time on hi-how-are-you. “There’s an issue with the temple.” I didn’t plan on going into any more detail than that. As a general rule, it’s not a good idea to give that kind of information to someone who works for the enemy. “Kimmy needs a place to stay for a few days.”
His voice sharpened with concern. “Are you okay?” Even through the phone, I could sense his probing gaze.
“I’m fine. Kimmy is the one who needs help. Can she crash on your couch for a while? I’ve looked everywhere else—and I mean everywhere. It’s you or the sketchy nudist reality show.”
“She’s welcome here, as long as she doesn’t mind sharing the couch with a few dozen books.”
“Thanks. I owe you.” I hung up. “Hey, good news. I found you a place to—what’s wrong?”
Kimmy was staring at her phone as if it had bitten her. The remaining half of her muffin sat beside her, untouched.
“What was that second name again?” she asked.
“Daryl McCabe. Why?”
Kimmy showed me her screen.
I started reading. Then I downed the rest of my coffee in one gulp. I was going to need it. “Well, fuck.”
Chapter 7
I had spent enough time in Bastian’s apartment over the past few weeks that I was almost starting to get used to the place, but as Kimmy studied the room with a mix of fascination and dismay, I started to see it through her eyes. The books piled on every available surface, as well as large swaths of the floor. The crumpled notebook pages full of combined illegible scrawls and diagrams that looked like they needed several engineering degrees and a background in esoteric symbology to understand. The stacks of dirty dishes in the sink, as well as on every available counter space that wasn’t already filled with books.
“You know,” said Kimmy, “while I’m here, I could get this place organized for you. An organized apartment is an organized mind.”
A look of alarm crossed Bastian’s face. “You know I’m happy to help you however you need, Mal,” he said to me, “but—”
“Remember the people who broke in and tried to kill us a while back?” I cut in, addressing Kimmy. “Remember the magic they used? Bastian can do everything they do, but a whole lot better. Don’t mess with his stuff.”
Kimmy jerked her hand away from the book she had been about to touch. She clamped her arms to her sides and stood like a statue—a terrified statue—in the center of the room.
“I assume you can’t tell me anything more about whatever this issue with the temple is,” said Bastian.
“You assume right.” Bastian and I might have been friends—or something like it—but that didn’t mean we forgot about our own agendas as soon as we started talking. Anything I told him would find its way into his people’s files, for them to use against Hades someday.
Bastian works for an organization called Humanity Ascendant, whose sole purpose is to free humanity from the gods. At least that’s how they’d describe it. I’d call it cutting off humanity from one of our best sources of strength. With no underworld gods, there would be no afterlife; with no harvest gods, millions more people would starve around the world. Without gods of rain and wind and all the rest, the weather would be even crazier than it already is. But I’ve tried explaining that to Bastian, and gotten nowhere.
Remember how I said Guardians are the only mortals who can use magic? And remember how I said one group is an exception? Yeah, that’s because of Bastian. He did what no other mortal has been able to do in the history of the human race, and created a system of purely human magic, fueled not by divine power but by the human life force—blood and soul. Of course, he cheated a little—the only reason he was able to do it in the first place is that he’s part god himself, which makes his whole vendetta against the gods more than a little hypocritical. But he was able to teach other humans to use his system, even if they can’t do it with anything close to his strength.
The system in question is ridiculously inefficient, especially for anyone who isn’t a demigod. I’ve seen a dozen of his mages throw their life force at a god’s wards and drop dead without making a dent. But the fact that it works at all is terrifying enough. Not that I think they could actually hurt the gods. Whatever power they might have, they’re mortal. The gods aren’t. But mortal or not, they have power that they shouldn’t have, power that breaks all the rules I was taught in the temple. Not to mention a secret underground compound that spans several miles of the city. When they finally go to war against the gods, I have no doubt that they’ll lose, but it’s going to be messy.
And Bastian will be right in the middle of it. But I try not to think about that.
“Is it okay if I put my bag on the couch?” Kimmy asked meekly.
“Go ahead.” Bastian shot her a small smile, which only made her twitch.
“Thanks for doing this.” I reached for the doorknob. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay. More temple business. You know how it is.”
“At least eat something before you go. It’s about time for our weekly dinner, isn’t it?”
“We don’t have weekly dinners.”
“Of course not.” A smile played at the edges of Bastian’s lips. “You just happen to stop by in the evening once a week or so, and we enjoy the dubious pleasure of frozen reconstituted meat together.”
“I need to keep an eye on you people. You know, seeing as you made me agree to a deal where I wouldn’t tell the gods you were assembling an army to defeat them.”
“I never forced you to agree to my terms. You needed my help; that was the condition.” His maddening half-smile took the harshness out of his words. “And as for keeping an eye on Humanity Ascendant, what happened to good old-fashioned spying?”
“It doesn’t work when you know I’m watching you.”
He dipped his chin slightly, conceding the point. “If you let me know once in a while that you’re coming by, I might be able to cook something nice for a change.”
“What, like the expensive frozen dinners instead of the cheap ones?”
Bastion shrugged his acknowledgment. “Time spent cooking is time I could be spending on my research.”
“Feel free to eat a few fish sticks in my honor. But I really do have to go. If I don’t fix this problem soon—” And that was where I stopped, because my brain had decided to remind me at the most inconvenient time of another conversation I’d had with Bastian.
Bastian frowned in concern. “Is something wrong?”
I had never actually promised him anything. I could make some excuse and walk away, and he would never know the difference. But I had broken my word to Bastian before, and people had died. More specifically, I had killed them. He had no reason to trust me after that, but ever since then, I had wanted to give him one.
So I sighed and let go of the doorknob. “Remember when the dead were trying to use Lissa as a door to the mortal world? Remember how it may have been implied that I’d let you know if they broke through and threatened the city? Well, this is me telling you.”
Bastian’s frown deepened. “You solved that problem.”
“Apparently a few seconds too late.”
“You closed the gate last month. Why are you only telling me this now?”
“Because I’m only hearing about it now. Apparently the longer they spend here, the more they’re able to affect the physical world. Hades has a lot of spirits to keep track of; my guess is that these two slipped away unnoticed until they started causing problems.”
Bastian straightened, shifting subtly into professional mode. “What kind of problems?”
“A dead body turned up yesterday.”
“And what makes you think it’s connected to these spirits?”
“Hades sent a couple of helpers to tell me.”
“It could be an isolated incident.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. Nothing was ever proven, but before one of them died, he was suspected of killing at least twenty people. I’m guessing he’s taking this opportunity to pick up where he left off.”
“Well,” said Bastian, “that’s certainly an unfortunate development.”
“My reaction was a bit more colorful, but the sentiment was the same.”
Bastian pulled a package of hot dogs out of the refrigerator. “Are you hungry?” he called to Kimmy, who was in the process of unpacking her bag.
Kimmy gave the package a wary look. “Are those magic hot dogs?”
“Only if you count the fact that somebody made all their nutritional value disappear,” I answered. “But it wasn’t Bastian, so I think you’re safe.”
Kimmy shook her head. “I’ll pass.”
Bastian dumped five hot dogs—two for him, three for me—into a bowl of water and stuck it in the microwave. “Sit,” he said, waving in the direction of the table. “We’ll talk strategy.”
“Thanks, but I’ve got this. I said I’d tell you if the dead started wandering around the city—well, maybe I never actually said it, but the sentiment was there—and I told you. I can handle the rest.”
Bastian’s back was to me as he stuffed the hot dog packaging into the trash, but I could still hear his sigh from clear across the room. “Are we back to this again?”
I probably deserved that. I couldn’t deny that I had a bit of a habit of pushing him away. The problem was, I knew what getting close to him would mean. I had feelings for him. Mushy gushy bluebirds-singing-around-my-head kind of feelings. And it wasn’t one-sided, either. He was the one who kept asking me to go on a proper date with him. But no amount of singing bluebirds could change the fact that we were on opposite sides. When Humanity Ascendant went to war against the gods, they weren’t planning on leaving Hades or his allies out of it. People I knew, people I cared about, would die. I had already gotten a taste of the power they could command. The old temple hadn’t survived. Neither had most of Hades’s people. And Humanity Ascendant hadn’t even reached their full strength yet.
Then there was the fact that no matter how well they fought, and how much damage they did, the gods would crush them in the end. And demigod or not, I had no illusions about Bastian’s chances of survival.
But even if none of that were an issue, I still wouldn’t have accepted any of Bastian’s invitations. I didn’t date. I hadn’t for a long time. I meant it when I said I had feelings for Bastian, but there was one crucial feeling I was missing—the one that should have taken my embarrassing romantic daydreams from family-friendly to X-rated. See, I’m asexual. I don’t even know what it means to want somebody in that way. All the bluebirds in the world wouldn’t change that. By the time I died, I had been through enough heartbreaks to figure that out.
