Catacombs (The Sekhmet Bounty Series Book 2) (16 page)

“Well, the night’s still young,” I snapped back.

“Your work is impressive,” the unicorn, Anessa, said. “You have quite lived up to your reputation.”

I nodded. “Thank you. Now I want you to know, all of you, that I am done. If you want me for another job, you will have to post a bounty, then hope and pray I take it, but I’m not playing these games with you anymore. I will not take any more assignments from you.”

A horrible thing that I feared was probably supposed to be a smile crossed Leilah’s face. “You are done when we say you are done.”

I laughed. “No. I’m done now. If you don’t like it, do your worst.” I held my arms out wide.

“Let her go,” Nash said. “She has earned it.”

“I agree,” Holden said.

“Me too,” Sy and Anessa chimed in.

“Kill her,” Marcelo, a shadowy man, added unhelpfully to the conversation.

Leilah’s reptilian eyes glared at me. “It looks like you’re free.”

I nodded and walked away, though I couldn’t go far without Sy. I stayed close, but not too close, enjoying the peace and solitude for once—so long as it didn’t last too long. Leilah was the most likely culprit, which meant it probably wasn’t her. She was too slippery to get caught in something like this. She would have figured out another way to get the jar out. Nash knew about the treasure, which was suspicious. And he was definitely the sort of creature that would be trapped by a labyrinth. But if he was behind it, why admit knowing about the jar now? The others, I had no idea.

“Ready to go?” Sy asked, leaning against a nearby tree.

“How long have you been here?” Transporting wasn’t fair. No footsteps.

“A few moments. You seemed lost in thought; didn’t want to interrupt.”

I nodded, heading toward him. “It’s pretty here.”

“It is. I grew up just over there.” He pointed into the woods. I looked, even though it looked exactly the same in all directions. “I’ll have to bring you back here sometime in the light.”

I’d like that. I couldn’t say it, but it was true that I would. Sometimes the truer the words were, the harder they were to say. I put my arm around his waist and closed my eyes; it helped with dizziness.

The musty, wet smell of the catacombs was scraped into my memory. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to know where he’d transported us.

“How many people on the council have heat-sensing vision? I’m not complaining, but we’re so far away from the door we’ll probably miss them.”

“Do you not know what the word ‘silent’ means?” Holden said with his typical lack of patience.

I jabbed him with my elbow. “Sounds like someone needs to calm down, grumpypants. Besides, I’m pretty sure ‘silent’ means boring, just like this, Chuckles. Besides, I’ve spent more time here the last few days than I have in my own bed. I think I’ve earned the right to bitch a little.” I couldn’t see Holden’s face, but I could feel the eye roll.

“At least three,” Sy said, answering the question about how many council members had heat-sensing vision. “And our position’s good. My traps will work.”

Ever the Boy Scout, Sy came with a plan. A few elf tricks later and we had four “warning bells” that would let him know if anyone was in our tunnel. The plan wasn’t to confront whoever the guilty party was, at least not tonight. We’d wait until he or she came to investigate, see who it was, once and for all, then Holden would present the evidence. That was fine with me; I wasn’t in this for the glory.

Hours ticked away like years. Either Sy’s traps didn’t work, or whoever it was wasn’t coming.

“We’ll come back tomorrow night,” Holden said, standing up and stretching.

“Because they can only come at night?” I asked.

“Do you want to stay all day?” he asked in a tone that made it hard to tell if he was joking or considering it.

I actually didn’t, but that didn’t mean I’d risk our one chance. “If that’s what it takes.”

“If the alarms go off, I’ll know,” Sy said. “We can be back here in seconds.”

“Information you could have shared hours ago. Why did we sit here all night if that’s all it would take?”

“Reconvene at the Office tonight?” He ignored my more-than-legitimate question.

“If you hear something, just tell Olivia. She’ll let me now. It’s faster that way.” I didn’t hear or see Holden leave, but I felt it immediately. One good thing about being on a stakeout with Holden was that, as a jinni, his dominant emotions bled over to the people around him, especially in close quarters. He might not be patient with other people, but the man could stand in one spot and wait forever like a damn statue if necessary. The moment he vanished that feeling of calm went with him, my spine stiffened, and a fat droplet of water landed on my shoulder, reminding me that flooding was a risk.

Once this case was over, I was staying above ground. Permanently.

Sy escorted me to my front door. “I’ll stay with you. It will save us time if something does trip the alarms.”

I smiled, shaking my head. “Well, who am I to argue with convenience?”

“Exactly.”

I unlocked the door and went inside. “I have nothing to eat here. We’ll have to order in.”

Sy laughed. “You never have food.”

“That’s what happens when you eat.” I slipped off my jacket and tossed it on a stool as Sy closed the door. “Menus are in the third drawer on the right.”

I bent over to take off my boots, just as the creaky floorboard in my bedroom alerted me to the fact we weren’t alone. I came up with my knife. Glancing into the kitchen, I saw Sy had heard it too. He pulled a butcher knife out of the sink. It was dirty, but it’d kill all the same.

I moved left, ducking into my living room, to make it harder for the intruder to cover both of us. A beautiful woman with flowing white hair and a long, spiked horn growing out of her forehead stepped out of my bedroom. I didn’t see that coming.

“Anessa?” Sy said to the unicorn.

“Sy.” She gave him a pleasant nod. “Femi.” She nodded at me, too. “I think we need to talk. You won’t need those.” She snapped her fingers and the knife in my hand turned into a flower.

My mouth fell open. “I liked that knife.”

“You shouldn’t brandish weapons at guests. You might give them the wrong idea. You wouldn’t want to seem hostile, would you?”

“You have to be invited to be a guest,” I grumbled.

She ignored me and sat on my couch, her legs crossed. “I know a great cleaning service. I could give you her number.”

“Could you give my knife back? Because that’s what I really want.”

She smiled widely as those pale eyes stared at me. “You’re funny. And that’s good. Hold on to that. Life can get hard without a sense of humor, especially when you have Pandora’s box.”

I crossed my legs so my hands were closer to my other knives. “And where would I have gotten that?”

She sighed. “No more lies. You took it from Shezmu and left him alive. Granted, you did close the passages for humans, which was annoyingly efficient at ending the council’s involvement. But none of that matters.” She leaned forward. “I need the box. You can’t even harness it with any sort of control. What is your plan for it?”

“It’s evil,” Sy said. “No one can harness it.”

Anessa shook her head. “Of course they can. At least, I can. I bet you are going to hide it, just like your father did. Do you know how long it took me to find the labyrinth? What a tedious waste of effort. Especially since you don’t understand. The evil was already released. All that was left was hope. You’re hiding hope from a people in desperate need of it. I can give that back to the world.”

“You can’t count on that,” Sy said. “That’s the story, but no one knows what’s left in it. It could just as likely destroy you and the world.”

Anessa’s big eyes filled with tears. “Is there really so much to save? All I see is hurt and pain. Let me try.”

“Look, I’m going to make this real simple. No. Even if I knew where it was, which I don’t, I’d never let you or anyone on the council have it.”

She took a deep breath. “I wish you hadn’t said that.” Quicker than a blink she had moved, and teeth were sinking into my neck.

I tore myself away, blood gushing down my chest. A wave of dizziness knocked me into Sy, who was already on his feet.

“Most people don’t know a lot about unicorns,” Anessa said in her singsong voice. “For example, we draw out disease and pain from the people we help, and store it. It makes a sort of venom that can be injected into those who would seek to hurt us. And that’s what you’re doing.”

My lungs boiled and it was hard to pull in air. I clung to Sy, so I could stay on my feet as I struggled for a breath.

“So here’s the deal. I will take it all back, if you give me what you stole.”

“Femi, hold on,” Sy said. “I can fix this.”

I shook my head. It didn’t matter if I lost a life. No deals. “Kill her,” I said.

“Oh, your boyfriend can’t kill me. Didn’t he tell you? I made him immortal. He can never lift a finger against me. It’s a perk of being cannibalized.”

“I can’t,” Sy said calmly. “But she can.”

My vision was fading and it was hard to keep my eyes open. Their voices sounded thick and slow to my ears. It was hard to process anything they were saying.

“I believe in you,” he said against my mouth before he kissed me.

As fast as the venom entered me, he drew it out, his lips moving against mine, until I felt like myself again. Sy fell, making choking, gasping sounds as his eyes rolled back in his head and he crumbled to the ground, his whole body shaking and trembling.

I wanted to fall with him, hold him in my arms, but I couldn’t. He believed in me. I spun just in time to avoid Anessa throwing a lamp at me. It smashed against the wall, bursting into pieces over my couch. I stalked toward her. If she had resorted to throwing furniture, she didn’t have enough venom for another bite.

I pulled two knives and she snapped her fingers—daisies. “Keep it up with the flowers. I’ll make you eat them.”

“I do not wish to kill you. I like you. I always have. Just give me what I want.”

Sy was turning blue. “If he dies, I will eat your heart and mount your head on my wall.”

Her wide, innocent eyes narrowed and she stepped back. “Is that right?”

I ran at her with a war cry, not caring at all about my neighbors. My elbow connected to her jaw with a crack. But the smaller woman absorbed the blow, coming back with a head butt that caught my chin. Something sharp sliced the side of my throat—the horn. I rolled away.

She charged me again, head down, aimed right at my stomach. I kicked the side of her skull, knocking her to the side. She smashed into my wall, leaving a hole the size of a horse head. Great, there went my deposit.

She tossed her hands up and a blast of force hit me, knocking me back against the wall and pinning me there. I fought to move with everything I had. Sy’s choking had slowed to an alarming gurgle. Anessa lowered her head again and ran at me, the horn sinking into my stomach, impaling me.

Blood poured from my body. Anessa pulled the horn back out.

I was still pinned to the wall and couldn’t move, but that didn’t mean I had to let her go. I might have been dying, but I was running on pure hatred. I reached down, grabbed the horn, and held it tight as I punched her over and over and over again until the horn snapped off in my hand. I landed on my feet.

Anessa fell back, reaching for her forehead. “What have you done?”

I threw the horn across the room and pulled another knife.

She curled into a ball, covering her face. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” I said, dragging her to her feet by her arm. As much as I wanted to, I had the sneaking suspicion she was mortal now. “But you’re not getting away, either.” I cuffed her and dropped her back to the ground, before I went to Sy.

He had completely stopped breathing.

I held him in my arms. “You’re going to be okay. You’ll be fine. I can fix this.”

A squeaking gasp came from his blue lips. His gray eyes cracked open. His hand came to rest against my cheek, his thumb wiping away the tear that had spilled over. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. I could see it in his eyes, though, what he couldn’t say. My vision blurred.

“Don’t you leave me, Sy. I need you. Don’t you dare.”

I pressed my hands to his chest and focused on healing him. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth and out of his ears. No, no, no. I could do this. I had to do this. Tears blinded me, but his chest had stopped rising and falling beneath my hands. He was dying and I couldn’t stop it.

He couldn’t die. I wouldn’t let him. Sy had to live. I took his face in my hands. “You son of a bitch. You should have let me go. It should have been me,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his.

Olivia couldn’t cure him. She’d have to take him on to the next world. Holden couldn’t help either.

What do you seek?
A voice that sounded an awful lot like Sekhmet rang through my mind.
The answers are within.

What kind of bullshit hippie crap was that? I held him tighter to my chest. Fine. I took a deep breath. I was seeking a way to save Sy. I needed Sy to live.

Then share your life with him.

It was a little too late to marry him. I was just about to tell her as much when understanding dawned on me. I had nine lives. This death should have been mine to begin with. I wasn’t sure how to do it, but I let my instincts guide me. I drew in a deep breath like I had never known. It filled me from my feet all the way up. Sekhmet chanted in my head. I bent down over Sy, releasing my breath into his body.

It didn’t hurt, ripping away a life. It wouldn’t have mattered if it had. Knowing that I would get to keep my friend longer made it worth whatever the cost was. Sy was the one who would always be there. He had been with me from the beginning. I needed to know that no matter what happened or how fucked up the world got, he would always be there, ready to make it better. I would have given him all of my lives if he needed them, and he’d do the same for me.

I held him as he started breathing again. Color came back to his face. I pressed my cheek to his forehead. His hand covered mine.

“Femi?”

I didn’t let go. I wasn’t ready yet. I held him a little longer, my heart finally beating again now that I knew he was okay. His hand rubbed back and forth against mine, but he didn’t try to pull away again.

“Where is Anessa?” he asked.

“Handcuffed on my bed.”

He leaned his head to the side and looked up at me.

“Don’t worry, it will hold.”

He smiled and the world was right again. My arms loosened slowly, until I eventually released him. He sat back up, serious once again.

“What happened? I’m pretty sure I died, but here I am.”

I nodded, running my tongue over my lips. Suddenly I felt shy. “I healed you.”

He blinked in surprise. “How do you feel? I was beyond healing, Femi.”

I stood up, wiping beneath my eyes. “We should call the others.”

He caught my hand, pulling me toward himself, his eyes focused on my stomach. “What happened?” He gently touched the tender skin.

“Impaled by a unicorn horn. Bet most people can’t say that.” I looked down, expecting a bloody mess, but the skin was just pink and new. What in the world?

“And live to tell about it, no,” Sy said. “What else happened? Did you have any more injuries?”

“Not really. Nothing too bad.” Not satisfied, he inspected me. “Sy…”

“This isn’t just worry. You’ve changed. You healed me; you survived injuries you shouldn’t have… What else is different?” He flipped my palm and studied the mark. “I noticed this earlier. What is it?”

I sighed. “The goddess gave it to me. I think it’s a bit of herself. I can hear her voice sometimes.”

Sy let go. “Is that normal for your people?”

“Perfectly normal.” Perfectly normal…for the ruler. “Not for everyone, just those who have pleased her.”

Happiness creased his eyes. “That’s wonderful.” He hugged me and I couldn’t keep lying to him.

Damn it anyway. “That’s not the truth—or at least not the whole truth. I have the mark because Sekhmet has chosen me to lead my people after my mother dies. I told her no and she didn’t seem concerned. She said she could see I still had a lot of adventures to find what I was searching for, but she still selected me.”

Sy held me at an arm’s distance away. “What does that mean? Is that why you are going home? Are you leaving?”

I shook my head. “Unrelated. My mother will recover. I know it in my bones.”

“This time,” he said. “But what about the next or the next? How much time do you have?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything.” I ran my hand over my hair, smoothing it. “And so long as I’m confessing, I didn’t technically heal you. You were right. You died.”

“What did you do?”

“I gave you one of my lives.”

I didn’t know what reaction I expected, but it wasn’t what I got.

He took a step back, scratching his chin. “Huh.”

I gave him a life and the best he could do was
huh
? Annoyed, I sent a quick prayer to Olivia, and a few moments later, both her and Holden arrived. When everyone had been brought up to speed, we called in Leilah.

The dragon came through my door without knocking. Her lips curled at the sight of my apartment. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t the best housekeeper, and it wasn’t what one would call nice, but the neighbors knew enough to mind their own business, I was hardly ever home, and it was cheap, which made it easy to pick up and move whenever I needed to, no planning required.

“Why am I here?” she snarled.

“What do you think the last mission I went on was about?”

“Exactly what I said it was about.”

“Shezmu was trapped in a labyrinth. Humans should have never been able to find him.”

She pursed her lips, but didn’t speak.

“He had something with him in there. He had Pandora’s box.”

The hard lines of the dragon’s face softened in surprise for just a second. “If you killed him, the labyrinth would be destroyed and we would have no idea where the box went.”

I nodded. “I didn’t kill him. I destroyed the pathways to him and I caught the person who was sending the humans through.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Who might that be?” Holden brought out Anessa and deposited her at the dragon’s feet. “Where is her horn?”

I laid it on the table.

Her head turned to Anessa. “I will deal with her myself.” She turned back to me. “You are released from your duty to us.”

“I know. I already was.”

She smiled ever so faintly. “Yes, well,
I
release you this time. Is the box safe?”

I nodded.

“Good. Tell me nothing else about it.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

She paused at the door, dragging Anessa and the detached unicorn horn with her. “Would you like part of this for your mother? It will cure what ails her.”

I shook my head. “It would also make her immortal, and I’m not sure the world is ready for that.”

Leilah broke off a piece of the horn and handed it to Sy. “Just in case,” she said.

He nodded. “I’m taking some vacation time.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m going home with Femi.”

I laughed. “You think you can just invite yourself?”

He flashed his charming, boyish grin. “And not only that. From now on when you need a partner on a case, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“What about Katrina?”

Sy shrugged. “You seem to be under the impression Kat and I got married. We’re friends and we’ve gone on a couple dates. She has her own life and so do I. Neither of us have any expectations at this point. Is that clear enough for you?”

I bit the inside of my lip to keep from smiling. I would never understand men or apparently myself, but that was the best news I had heard all day.