Enter the Janitor (The Cleaners) (Volume 1) (25 page)
Read Enter the Janitor (The Cleaners) (Volume 1) Online
Authors: Josh Vogt
Chapter Thirty-six
Dani watched from a few yards back, Sydney by her side, as Ben and Stewart prepared the spell. She’d handed the obsidian needle over to Ben, who coated it with a layer of soapy water he’d mixed up until the shard turned opalescent.
Stewart knelt by the triangular glyph and hovered hands over it. Eyes closed, he took up his muttering chants. Ben glanced back with a weary smile.
“Stay ready, kids.”
He stretched a band of water from forefinger to thumb of the same hand. Dani laughed to herself as he placed the glimmering shard in the crook of this and pulled it back, like a pebble in slingshot. He sighted between the fingers and aimed for the
X
across the circle.
Dani held her breath. She counted each second by the pulse in her ears.
Ben let fly.
The needle shot over the boundary. The instant it did, Stewart pounded a fist into the glyph, and the circle lit up with a wavering blue-green light. So long had they been in this bleak, colorless world that the sight almost made Dani cry out in relief.
Right as it crossed over the
X
, the needle struck. A third of it disappeared mid-air, and the rest hung there as if hammered into an invisible wall. Dani tensed, ready to run in case anything went violently wrong. After a few breaths, however, nothing changed.
“C’mon,” Ben muttered. His hands clenched and unclenched. Dani watched him as he stared at the needle.
The needle trembled as if tugged from the other side.
“C’mon!”
The pearly coating ballooned into the size of a man’s head. Ben whooped in triumph as the bubble expanded. It swelled to the borders of the circle and stopped. Stewart raised his hands as if physically keeping it from moving further. The bubble strained against the boundary before it snapped back into a stable dome, twenty feet high.
Once settled, it turned translucent and gave a clear view of what they’d created. Where the
X
had been, there now stood an arched, two-dimensional hole, big enough for any of them to walk through. The area within the containment circle shone with white light, a stark contrast to the gray earth.
Dani looked closer at the portal and realized blurry shapes were visible within it, as if she looked through a doorway back into their world. She recognized the dark mounds in the distance, with small roads winding between them.
“Isn’t that your dump?” she asked the trash mage.
Stewart shrugged without looking her way. “Where else is I’s supposed to grab hold? ’S good as any. Holdin’ firm,” he told Ben. “Should be right ’n ready.”
Ben stepped over the boundary. Dani watched nervously as the bubble rippled around him, but it let him pass without injury. He marched around inside the bubble, went up to the portal, stuck his hand through and drew it back. Stewart grimaced as Ben rejoined them on the outside, but otherwise maintained his vigil over the glyphs. Their green-blue glow cast the garbage man’s wrinkled face in such a light that Dani thought of mold growing on tree bark.
“It worked.” Ben’s relieved grin elicited a brief one of her own. He rolled his shoulders like a prize fighter. “My turn.”
Dani bit her lip as Ben unwrapped the plastic bags from around his arm. The festering sores looked worse than before, coring deeper into the flesh. From the wrist to the shoulder, all the skin was pallid and gray, glistening with a green sheen. A series of scratch marks dug down from this elbow to inner forearm, crusted with black blood. What made her cringe most was a black handprint where she’d grabbed him while imbued with the essence of fire. How did he stand the pain?
Ben waved for Sydney to join him. “Step on up, pretty boy. Put those magic hands to good use for once.”
Sydney cocked a brow. “You forget. I never changed my mind from earlier. I won’t harm you, helpless and willing as you are.”
Ben scowled. “Don’t be wastin’ our time. This thing ain’t gonna stay open forever.”
“Then you shouldn’t have opened it,” Sydney said. “You simply decided to go ahead with your stellar plan, not considering that perhaps we weren’t all in agreement on how to proceed.”
Ben’s expression darkened. Dani backed up as he stalked over to Sydney. The men squared off, Sydney’s calm unwavering in the face of Ben’s anger. Then Ben smirked. “What’cha afraid of? Killin’ me?”
Dani caught Sydney’s quick look her way. The slightest flush tinted his cheeks.
“Oh, I get it,” Ben prodded the mage’s chest. “You don’t wanna look bad in front of your little crush. Cute, but I ain’t got the patience for your simperin’.”
Two slaps sent Sydney reeling. Ben closed the distance, fists clenched. The veins in his temples and neck pulsed.
“Get over it,” he shouted. “You’re actin’ like a teenager who doesn’t know how to stick on a corsage. Need me to chaperone until your balls drop?”
He shoved Sydney, who stumbled again before catching himself. When he righted, Ben grabbed the front of his jacket. The janitor turned and, with a shocking show of strength, threw the mage off his feet and into the bubble. Sydney squawked as he somersaulted, coming up within the circle. Light glittered on his blond hair and accentuated the tattered state of his white jacket. Before he could exit, Ben jumped over and shoved him further in.
“That’s right. You think I’m just gonna lie down and let you sap me dry? You’re gonna have to work for it. Just try and lay a hand on me. I’ll have you cryin’ ‘grampa’ before I’m through.”
His hook mashed Sydney’s ear. The mage hopped away, hand to his wounded face. His appalled look was so comical Dani almost laughed.
Ben waded in. Sydney took several more hits to tender spots, chuffing and grunting with each. Dani saw the moment when testosterone and adrenaline took over. Sydney stiffened under the barrage of hits. Shoulders flexed. Fingers tensed. Nostrils flared.
Ben’s next punch came straight at his nose. With a yell, Sydney latched onto Ben’s hand. Darkness pulsed.
Dani cried out as Ben withered. One instant, he stood gray-headed, wiry, and tall. The next, his hair flowed white and coarse. He shuddered and hunched, spine twisted out of true. His skin turned mottled with purple and brown. Each joint poked out, knobbly and swollen.
Ben bent before Sydney, hacking and wheezing. “A’ight. Good start. Hit me again.”
Sydney hesitated, still gripping Ben’s hand. The janitor reared back, though his arms and legs shook as if he might collapse.
“Do it. Else I’m knockin’ between your legs to prove you ain’t got a pair.”
The fury in Sydney’s eyes flared, as did his power. Ben’s face contorted in a silent howl. Dani spun away, hands over her eyes, refusing to watch.
Awful silence waited behind her. The softest groan made her turn back. Ben’s limbs were as thin as kindling. The jumpsuit hung off him like skin ready to be shed. He was almost unrecognizable, practically a skeletal mannequin with his eyes sunken deep in their sockets. A few scraps of hair clung to his scalp. Warts spotted his neck and his lips had taken on a purple tint.
Sydney dropped the janitor and backed up, disgust writ on his pale face. As he retreated, Dani ran to Ben, fearing he’d been killed outright. His breaths came in fits; his blue eyes had glazed over with thick cataracts. He looked so tiny curled up on the ground. His hands had been reduced to claws, which she gripped, trying to offer her strength.
“Dani?” His voice had faded into a crow’s chuckle.
“I’m here,” she said. “How do you feel?”
“Oh … chipper. Figured on doin’ a jig.” He sputtered. “Guess this is … what a turd feels like just before … it gets flushed.”
Sydney sat with his head in his hands. Dani didn’t give him a second glance, though she knew she was being unfair in ignoring him. Ben had practically forced this on himself, but that couldn’t stop her horror at what Sydney had done.
“Unzip me.”
She looked down at Ben, who fumbled at his uniform.
“What?” she asked.
A yellow fingernail tapped the zipper. “Open up … the suit. It’s blockin’ … the Corruption.”
Dani reached for the tag.
“Careful … don’t be … touchin’ …”
She tugged it down to his waist and moaned in sympathetic pain as Ben’s chest and shoulders were revealed. The Ravishing had spread as planned. The skin across his torso looked ready to slough off, and she kept her hands well away, even gloved as they were, not just to avoid contracting the infection but to keep from hurting him further.
As he’d done earlier, she cradled his head in her lap, trying to provide as much comfort as she could. The back of her mind started screaming about all sorts of germs she might contract, but she ignored it as best she could. He felt too light, as if his bones had been replaced by sawdust. His shallow breaths frightened her, and she listened hard for each one, not knowing if it would come.
While she held him, she woke her power to its slightest degree and let it burrow into the ground around her—the first step in the plan she and Stewart had discussed. Finesse wasn’t and likely never would be her specialty. Natural disasters, big or small, weren’t known for being discrete events, but she could punch hard on short notice.
Now the hybrid just needed to show up.
As minutes turned to ten, turned to half an hour, Dani feared Ben’s sacrifice was for nothing. What if Destin had already found and enslaved the hybrid? What would they do if nothing happened? How could they return to the world with him this weak? The Cleaners would no doubt track them down the moment they showed their faces.
Ben’s breathing had steadied and deepened. A small relief. She wondered if he’d fallen asleep. Then he lurched in her arms and gave a soft cry, eyes still closed.
“Dani?”
She bent to his faint words. “Yes?”
He spit up black blood which dribbled down his chin. His whisper wavered through trembling lips.
“It’s comin’.”
She looked up. The black sky had split open, revealing the dead planets floating overhead in their somber palette. Among them, a purple light winked into being. It blazed brighter as it soared through the heavens straight for them.
***
Chapter Thirty-seven
Dani tracked the purple flame as it arced toward them. It enlarged with every second until, with a start, she realized where it would land.
“Oh, son of a *****.”
She scrambled to her feet, trying to be gentle in the rush. She grabbed Ben’s shoulders and dragged him out of the center of the circle, where the comet aimed. He’d lapsed back into unconsciousness.
The area lit with a violet hue. The air screamed as the hybrid punched through whatever atmosphere this world still possessed.
Once she reached the edge of the bubble, Dani dropped to her knees and curled herself over Ben, knowing she provided about as much protection as wet newspaper against a sniper bullet.
With a wail, the purple comet slammed into the earth. The shockwave almost pounded her flat onto Ben, and she fought not to crush him. The ground shook. Thunder clapped. For a moment, she feared the earth might split and swallow them all.
When the noise and reverberations faded, she raised her head. Gray dust obscured everything beyond an arm’s length. She tried to call out without opening her lips more than a fraction.
“Stewart? Sydney?”
“Here!” Sydney’s voice, off to the left.
“Oi,” came Stewart’s, from outside the bubble.
Dani stood on shaky legs. “Where is it? Do you guys see it?”
Through the haze, a figure crawled toward her. It moved spider-like on all fours. Dani jumped back, throat tightened so she couldn’t call out.
“Now, lass!”
Stewart’s shout pushed her into action. Dani unleashed the power she’d been holding in check. The earth bucked with the short, intense earthquake she’d triggered, and the figure flipped backward, out of sight.
A howl cut through the air. An electric charge sizzled in the air as Stewart’s trap sprung. Energy crackled around the edge of the circle, snapping like a thousand mousetraps triggering at once. The bubble quivered, but remained intact, as did the portal on the far side.
Further silence.
Dani worked her jaw until her ears popped. “Did we get it?”
And, if not, should we start running?
The last of the dust settled. Sydney stood a few yards away, wiping at his gray-coated clothes and face. “We captured something.” He nodded at a huddled figure halfway between them.
They joined each other in studying what had fallen into their midst, and it took Dani a few seconds to make sense of what she saw. She met Sydney’s eyes, noting the same befuddlement there.
“This is a godling?” she asked.
A teenage boy lay in the circle, bare-chested, clad only in tattered jeans and old sneakers. He had buzz-cut black hair, olive skin, and thick lips. When he returned her stare, his pupils were black with a shot of gold. Bands of blue-green energy had lashed around his ankles, waist, and wrists, and strapped him to the ground. Each time he strained against them, sparks coursed across his skin and made him cower once more.
Dani didn’t know what she’d been expecting. Something monstrous. Maybe demonic in appearance, or like an oversized slug. Alien. This … this was a malnourished teenager who looked ready to weep from fear. Not exactly awe-inspiring.
The hybrid groaned and then opened his mouth wide and yowled. They stepped back from the wretched noise which shook the air, like a hundred alley cats coming into heat at once. Dani felt as if the cries reached into her chest and snatched for any scrap of pity she contained.
“What’s it doing?” she asked with her hands over her ears.
Something tugged her pants leg. She jerked before realizing Ben had crawled over and snatched at her clothes to get her attention. His lips worked a bit before a couple words creaked out, barely heard over the hybrid’s cries.
“Check … the pulse.”
He fell back, exhausted by the effort of speaking. At the same time, the hybrid’s howls cut off. The teen’s head turned to stare at Ben, his gaze so intense the eyes seemed to glow.
Sydney edged over to him. When no further howls erupted, he knelt and quickly pressed fingers to the throat. He rose moments later, looking disturbed. “Weak, but present.”
“So?” Dani asked.
Sydney frowned down at the boy. “Pantheon members don’t have pulses. They project human appearances for the sake of interacting with us, but there’s no need for them to imitate things like blood flow or other internal fluids and organs.”
“What’s that mean?”
“This … it … he’s partly human.”
Dani glanced at Ben, but the janitor remained conked out. “I thought it was the offspring of two Petties,” she said. “Wouldn’t that make it all Petty?”
“Apparently he was mistaken.”
She planted hands on hips. “What do we do?”
The teen kept his eyes locked on Ben. His lips pursed as if trying to suck the janitor to him through a straw. Grunts and groans escaped with each heave of his chest.
“Hello?” Dani asked, crouching. “Do you understand us?”
His gaze snapped to her. She wavered as images and feelings shoved into her mind.
Emptiness. Loneliness. The teen had wandered the void, flitting from world to world in search of … something. Anything. Anyone. He wavered between panic and fury, alternately wanting to lash out at the agony the universe inflicted on him and find someone to just hold him. To whisper in his ear that everything would be okay.
A hand shook her and broke the spell. She blinked up at Sydney, who returned her gaze with concern.
“He’s in pain,” she whispered. “Terrible pain.”
“As Ben guessed, he’s likely sustained himself entirely on his Petty nature,” Sydney said. “Without food or water, his human elements must be suffering.”
“I know him,” she said.
He frowned. “Know him?”
“He tried to help me earlier, when the Cleansers had me locked up. We communicated somehow.”
Sydney stroked his chin. “Are you sure that was not some drug-induced hallucination?” He waved her glare away. “Even if that’s true, how do you know he was trying to help? He could’ve been toying with you. This is a being unlike anything ever encountered before.”
“All the more reason to try and learn who he is. Figure out how we can help.”
His smile turned pitying. “You barely know enough to keep yourself from getting killed in this world. What makes you so sure you can perceive his needs?”
“I know enough! I may not be able to tell the difference between a blot-dog and dirt demon—” She leveled a finger as he opened his mouth. “Do. Not. Correct. Me. I may not know everything, but I know when someone needs help. All this time, everyone’s been chasing him down and treating him the same way I was when I first got recruited. Like he’s an object. A weapon to be controlled or a threat to be wiped out. But he’s a person.”
“Only partially.”
“More than I’d give you credit for. Even partially, it’s enough. He’s like us. Ben was right; he deserves a chance, and we’re the only ones able to help him.”
Dani braced herself and met the hybrid’s eyes again. No mental barrage hit her. He just stared back, silently pleading. She locked onto her decision, determined nothing could shake her from it.
“Stewart.” The mage looked up from where he studied his glyphs. “Can you release the trap?”
“Wot?” cried the trash mage. “After all we’s done to snag ’im?”
“Belay that,” Sydney shouted. “Dani, you’re being reckless.”
“We only needed to restrain him until we could figure out what we were dealing with. Now we do, and I’m certain he won’t hurt us.”
Sydney cocked a brow. “Why is it our responsibility?”
“Uh, besides the fact we lured him down here? It’s what Ben would do if he had the strength.”
“Ben’s no longer in charge. He’s given up much for a creature that deserved nothing. A worthless sacrifice.”
“So you’re in charge? Now that you have your power back, you’re Mr. Know-it-all-do-it-all?”
Sydney flushed. “I’m trying to be rational. A simple glance into this boy’s eyes and you’re convinced he deserves warm milk and a bedtime story. What if this is nothing more than a front? He
is
still half Corrupt Petty.”
“But he’s human, too.”
“Which makes it easier to know what we should do. This kind of union was never meant to be. Humanity is not made to mingle with the Pantheon. The conflicting natures will tear him apart sooner or later. It will be a mercy to stop his suffering now.”
Dani stepped between Sydney and the hybrid, who moaned and thrashed behind her.
“Mercy? Just like the mercy you’ve shown all the recruits you’ve murdered?”
He winced. “Such a vicious word flung from your tongue.”
“What would you call it, then? Huh?”
He looked away for a moment, eyes closed as if seeing his victims parading before him.
“Inevitable,” he said at last.
“Uh-uh. You might believe that, but I refuse to. We all have choices, and mine is to help this boy.”
“At best, he’ll be a simpleton. At worst, a wild animal.”
“You don’t know that for sure. Look me in the eyes and tell me you can predict exactly how he’ll turn out.”
He held her gaze for a few moments, and then dropped it. “I can’t. Not when you demand the truth from me. But I do know if you take responsibility for him, it will be a terrible burden on you, and that is something I will not allow.”
Sydney moved to go around her and she planted herself in his way again. His long-suffering look sharpened with impatience and black auras pulsed around his hands.
“You can’t block me forever, Dani. I only need a single touch. This is best for both of you.”
She shifted to block him once more. “Think of what you’re doing. It shows a lot of what you really believe about me.”
The energy faded from his hands. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re not really concerned about the hybrid and what he might or might not do. To you, he’s an inconvenience. A tool to keep out of your brother’s hands. And when it comes down to it, you don’t think I can protect him. You think I’m too weak. That I’ll break under the pressure.”
Sydney rubbed over his face, and she sensed his defense crumble slightly.
“Do you know what I was studying to be before my power showed up? A doctor. That meant a life dedicated to helping others. Healing them and giving them another chance. I’ve probably lost any chance of ever going back to that, but I can at least bring some of it with me.”
He looked torn but the slightest bit of resolve still hardened his eyes. His pride demanded a compromise of sorts, she realized. What could she offer to break down his last resistance?
“Look, Sydney, if you spare him, I’ll … I’ll …” She swallowed hard and tried not to choke on the words. “I’ll let you take me on a date.”
His eyes bugged slightly. “Pardon?”
“A date. I’ll do the whole makeup and dress thing. You can get flowers, a violin player, carriage ride, whatever you want. Once this is over, you name the place and time, and I swear to you I’ll be there for the whole night. Just let the kid live.”
A gleam entered his eyes, a mix of suspicion and desire that made her instantly want to retract the offer. But what could a single date hurt?
He hung his head and the tension seeped out of him. “Very well. But only so you might know the depth of my affection and desire for you.”
“Sure,” she said. “Let’s talk about that later, okay? We’ve got to figure out a way to get somewhere safe so he and Ben can recover.”
He threw an angry look at the hybrid. “It would help if he spoke. Communication abets cooperation.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know how. Like one of those children raised by wolves.”
“Not the most comforting comparison.”
Motion over Sydney’s shoulder caught her eye. A shadow moved across the portal they’d opened. Dani sucked in a breath.
Sydney turned to see what startled her. A blurry figure slid into place, about to enter from the other side. Sydney must’ve realized the danger at the same time she did, for he ran to the nearest border of the circle even as she shouted.
“Destroy the bubble!”
Sydney pressed his hands against the film and closed his eyes in concentration. He fell back as if kicked in the stomach. After a few gasps, he looked to her, shocked.
“I can’t! Something’s keeping it open.”
Dani looked to the trash mage, who sat outside the circle, cross-legged, eyes closed. His head tilted upward, as if in communion with something.
“Stewart, can you collapse the spell?”
He didn’t answer. Not so much as a twitch to indicate he heard.
“Stewart!”
She turned back to the portal as the first Ascendant stepped through.
***
