Nightlife (26 page)

And as I went, so did the gate. It fell at the same time Niko's sword did, one just an echo of the other. Where once had hung a passageway to a time long ago, now stood only a blank wall. I dropped my eyes from the nonexistent gate to the fallen blade and then looked back up at my brother. "What? No souvenir?"

Nik didn't react to the comment or to my next one about the sky falling. In fact what he was responding to was anyone's guess. He didn't seem to notice when the sound of gunfire sputtered to a halt as Goodfellow and Samuel ran out of ammunition. That this happened in almost the same instant that the building began to collapse didn't seem to catch his attention either. Every iota of his considerable concentration seemed to be focused on me. I couldn't say how long it lasted. Maybe it was only seconds, but it seemed longer, much longer. What he saw, I didn't know. Silver eyes, transparent skin, fading consciousness, and a growing pool of blood—that was a given. But what did he see beyond that? I just didn't know. For the first time I couldn't read him. I'd seen his despair, his anguish, and then I'd seen it drain away to be replaced by… nothing. Nothing that I could identify, in any case.

Coming to some enigmatic decision, he blinked empty eyes and I was pulled over his shoulder before I could put up a fight. Not that it would have been much of one. Then he was running. As he went my vision began to darken and I allowed a decision of my own to be postponed. I never had been one to throw in the towel, not in either of my incarnations.

Behind us came the Auphe. I couldn't see Robin or Samuel; they must have been ahead. I could see my former employers, though. There were only slices of them as I sank further into cloying blackness, but it was more than enough to let me know my ass had been canned. If they caught us, separating my remains from the others would be a matter of DNA analysis. I'd failed them, but even worse than that, I had ruined their guinea pig. This body had what was a potentially fatal wound. It was now useless to them, and without it, so was I. The rage in their faces and their fiery eyes was for me as much as for Niko, Goodfellow, and Samuel. No two weeks' notice, and severance pay certainly wasn't looking like an option. I let the thought swirl down the drain to be replaced by another. It was a repeat of an earlier one. I could've stopped Nik. I could've stopped it all. So why didn't I?

That was pretty much the last truly coherent thought I was capable of. After that, there were only flashes… of light, sound, and a waning comprehension. We were inside under raining debris and only steps ahead of a maniacal horde. Abruptly a chunk of time disappeared and we were outside. I was still dangling upside down and staring at a part of Niko I really had no interest in. "Not your best side, Nik," I slurred more to myself than anyone else.

I didn't get a response or if I did, I was too far gone to recognize it. Suddenly everything spun, from asphalt to starless sky, and I found myself placed into the backseat of a car. Robin's voice came from the front as he turned over the engine. "Are we sure about this, Nik? You know they'll kill him. He doesn't stand a chance."

"We don't have a choice. Now drive." Niko's answer vibrated against me and I realized I was in a reclining position with my back against his chest. He had an arm wrapped hard around me with his hand holding a wadded cloth over the slash in my stomach with an unyielding pressure. It hurt, more than anything should. Despite that or maybe because of it, my attention drifted away to the back window of the car. I could see Samuel, just barely. Although the streetlights were working, my eyes weren't as cooperative. Still I could make him out. He was at the door of the warehouse, standing just inside it. His gun and ammunition but a memory, he was swinging Niko's sword with inexpert but lethal force. He was barring the way. He was all that stood between the Auphe and freedom. A part of me was impressed, stunned. A very small part of me. The larger part sneered an internal, "Sucker." Then we turned a corner and he was gone. An instant later the glass of the car windows shook as the roar of a collapsing building was heard. Choices. It all came down to choices.

Samuel had just made his.

I was flying.

Passing through the silky night air, I soared and dipped in perfect silence. Flying on and on, I savored the freedom. I couldn't see, but I didn't need to. There was no up or down, no land or sky. No stars or moon. There was only endless space and endless darkness. And there were endless memories as well.

I was five and running barefoot down a dirt alley in a faraway town. I'd long since forgotten the name or maybe I'd never even known it. There was a warm weight against my chest and a tongue lapping enthusiastically at my chin. The milk breath of a puppy was sweet to my nose and I was laughing. Nik had given the pup to me. He'd borrowed it for five bucks from one of our neighbors. Even at that age, I knew we couldn't keep it. I knew better than to even ask. Sophia would've sold it in a heartbeat. It was mine only for the day, Niko had cautioned, only one day. It was one of the best days I'd ever had.

I was older than any human civilization and crouched languidly on a gold-and-lapis-lazuli sarcophagus. I didn't know the name of the Pharaoh who'd died a hundred days previously, and I didn't care to know. On the floor of the tomb was a scatter of limbs and crimson-soaked sand. I'd been ensconced in the burial chamber for barely two weeks and I'd already had several tomb robbers creep in. The priest had promised me frequent visitors and he'd kept his word. A wealthy ruler was to keep his treasure clasped tightly in his withered fingers, and I was using a freshly decapitated head as a pillow. It was a good day. Maybe it wasn't the very best I'd ever had, but it was nothing to sneeze at either.

I was almost as old as time itself and yet younger than a mayfly. I was waking up and wishing desperately that I had enough breath to curse at the burning pain. Struggling out of unconsciousness, I pried my eyelids open a sliver but saw only darkness. Was I blind? No. A blur of headlights flashed by and I realized I was still in the back of the car. The surface supporting me from behind was no longer cloth against my bare skin. It was now skin to skin, warm to my clammy cold. I realized why as Niko's voice came quietly. "Robin, I need your shirt. Mine's soaked through."

Soaked through with blood. I could still feel it, hot and wet against my stomach. As much as Nik was trying to hold it in, my blood just kept rushing out. It had a mind of its own, just like I did, I thought hazily, riding the waves from ache to agony and back again. I could see Robin's maneuvering in the front from the corner of my eye. Keeping one hand on the wheel, he used the other to pass his shirt back to Niko. "How's he doing?"

A saturated ball of cloth was discarded on the floorboards and replaced with a pad carefully folded from Goodfellow's shirt. Silence was the answer to Robin's question, and a neatly eloquent answer it was. "We're not far," Nik observed, the troubled note buried so deeply under his still reserve it was barely detectable. "Just keep driving."

And just where were we going? I wondered. Not the hospital. That wasn't an option on any level. They wouldn't want to expose my big bad self to civilians. And let us not forget that in a hospital setting, silver eyes wouldn't be considered just a fashion statement. They would attract attention, the wrong kind of attention to say the least. Then the X-rays, the CAT scans, the surgeon's nimble hands, would all see and notice things that couldn't be ignored. It was amazing what a human mind could circumvent given enough leeway, but with enough evidence society-at-large would no longer be able to bury their heads in the sand. No, there would be no hospital. Still, Niko was doing his best to keep me from bleeding to death for a reason. Now, where—

I didn't have a chance to finish the thought as Goodfellow shattered my tenuous concentration with another comment. "Darkling is stubborn, Nik. He won't give up any more than you will." He hesitated and went on with apology. "He's found a perch he likes. Short of killing Cal, I honestly don't see a way of shaking him loose."

"Take the Verrazano." As far as Niko seemed to be concerned, the puck may as well not have spoken. The bridge… that meant we were headed to Staten Island. It meant something, but what exactly couldn't find purchase in my hazy thoughts.

Robin's forceful exhalation was followed by a grim chuckle. "You are one exasperating son of a bitch, I will give you that. I should've given you every car on the lot and counted myself lucky to see your backs."

"It probably would have been the wiser thing to do." Niko bowed his head against mine as he said soberly, "Don't think I don't know what you've done for us, Goodfellow. Without your help Cal and I would be dead now." The "if we were lucky" hung in the air, implied if not spoken.

"Don't forget the part where I helped save the world," Robin pointed out, recovering his cockiness in a heartbeat. "Robin Goodfellow, hero. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

I almost snorted in unison with Nik at the flagrant preening. My eyelids had drifted shut some time ago and I'd not noticed. The darkness of that wasn't so different from the darkness of our rushing through the night. And that in itself wasn't so different from flying. I was slipping slowly and surely back into the swaddling arms of a state much deeper than sleep. As I went, I heard my brother's whisper in my ear. "Stay with me, Cal. We're almost there. Stay with me."

He'd known that I was awake. He'd known all along, just as he now knew I was sliding away. Gravity had seemingly doubled, pressing down with the weight of a cave-in. The air was becoming thicker, moving in and out of my lungs like sludge. Each breath took more effort, each one farther away than the last. Cal might not know what it felt like to die, but I did. Vicariously speaking. I'd inflicted enough death in my day to recognize in intimate detail every shuddering breath, every failing heartbeat. This body, this joined life, was hovering, and it wasn't long before it stopped hovering and started falling. I was hoping I made the right decision, and I was banking on Niko to save my ass. Banking hard.

I don't remember much of anything after that. Pain. The heavy touch of suffocation. And then finally there was the suggestion of motion. As I was carried along, I made one final effort, one last push to a glittering surface far above my head. I was swimming upward with everything I had in me, but I was dragging chains and concrete weights behind me. As I struggled through a still black water, a voice impacted on my ears. It was a moment before I could actually process the sounds, turn them into the gruff demand that they were. "Quick. Lay him down on the bed. What the hell happened, Niko?"

The voice, it was familiar. I felt a hand laid urgently on my abdomen. It was warm. No, it was hot… almost painfully hot. That brought the memory out. There was the mental impression of shaggy auburn hair, impatient amber eyes, and a quirked eyebrow bisected with a fine-lined scar. It was the healer. It was Jeftichew. Rafferty Jeftichew. Staten Island… bingo.

"He was stabbed. Nearly a half hour ago." That would be Niko, succinct as always and on this occasion perhaps even evasive. "He's lost quite a bit of blood. I couldn't stop it."

" 'Quite a bit' being every damn drop in his body." Rafferty didn't sound too hopeful. What kind of gloomy bullshit bedside manner was that? I ask you. Then again Rafferty had never been one to sugarcoat bad news, and he hadn't the time or the inclination for the niceties. He and Nik, they were two peas in a pessimistic pod. The heat of his hand passed through my skin and traveled deeper. "You. Curly. Grab two IV bags from the top shelf of the refrigerator for me."

That made me wish I had enough strength left to open my eyes. I would've loved to seen the sour look I was sure decorated Goodfellow's perpetually smug face. Curly. I'll bet that chafed the vainglorious shit to no end. It gave me a glow even warmer than the scalding hand that was trying so desperately to knit back my insides. There was the slosh of liquid and the squeak of plastic as Curly apparently hopped to it. "What is this?" Goodfellow asked quietly.

"Fresh frozen plasma," Rafferty answered absently. "Now shut up and let me work, would you?" He might not have finished med school, but he had the attitude and sharp-edged tongue down pat. There was a hush after that. Deep, velvety, and peaceful, enough that I kept trying to drift away. I was attempting to set foot on that sinuous path that led nowhere yet everywhere all at once, but every time I did, there was an insistent force pulling me back. Hand over hand, the grip continued to reel me in with ruthless obstinacy.

Ruthless, obstinate, and with a devotion to healing that left Hippocrates himself in the dust—it was a short but accurate description of Rafferty. That and he did not suffer fools gladly. In fact, he did not suffer fools at all. Niko and I had crossed his path two years ago. I'd smelled the talent on him instantly. He in turn had known there was something different about me, although I'd never given him the chance to touch me and find out for sure. The laying on of hands would've resulted in his knowing something we didn't want him to know. Chances were it was something
he
didn't particularly want to know either. And if seeing Cal for what he truly was would've been a shock, seeing what I was now was bound to knock his socks off.

"How is he?"

Rafferty's sharp, frustrated exhalation followed on the heels of Niko's question. "Two phrases come to mind. 'Crashing and burning' and 'train wreck.' Take your pick." The heat of his palm intensified. "The son of a bitch sliced him up good. Who the hell did it?"

There was silence, and then Nik's unflinching answer. "I did."

"Ah." The healer was either absorbing the information or letting it flow over him, water off a duck's back. "I'm guessing that's why you skipped the hospital."

"No." There was the sound of skin on skin, a hand being rubbed wearily over a face. "That's not the reason. Be careful in there, Rafferty. Cal isn't precisely alone."

"Fine time to tell me," came the annoyed grunt. "I'm already in. I'm committed now."

Which would be exactly what Niko had planned all along. The reptilian part of me admired the insidious nature of the move and roundly despised the softer emotion behind it. The rest of me simply recognized it as Niko, through and through, and something I would've done in a heartbeat myself. At one time. Needless to say, if I survived, those days were long gone.

"Then the sooner you heal him, the sooner you can get out," Nik pointed out brusquely.

I didn't catch Rafferty's reply, but it was guaranteed to be scathing. It dawned on me slowly that I
was
healing. It was a snail-like process due to the severity of the wound, but it was happening. The sounds around me were growing sharper and even though I was still fading in and out, I was becoming more aware. Feeling stronger. In fact I felt strong enough to lever up my eyelids for a bleary glance around me. Light russet eyes took me in. "Damn, Cal," Rafferty said grimly. There was a tightening around the corners of his wide mouth, a spasm of distaste at what he was sensing as he healed me. "You look as creepy as you feel."

Thank you, Marcus Welby. Beside him Niko stood, his short hair still startling to my eyes. I saw the sick despair that lay under the tranquil surface of his smooth face, the sluggish movement of black water under ice. And I saw it fade slightly as he watched me open my eyes. His face loosened a slight amount and for one second he closed his eyes and let his shoulders sag. Then he pulled in a deep breath, straightened his shoulders to a ramrod stiffness, and snapped open his eyes. "Put him to sleep," he ordered without emotion.

Rafferty slid him a disbelieving look. "What? I'm still healing him. He's a long way from out of the woods. Sleep is the least of my concerns here."

"Put him to sleep, Rafferty. Do it now," Niko repeated harshly.

Goodfellow stepped up to add his two cents. Nosy bastard. "You might have trouble healing after Darkling here has bitten off your hand at the wrist. At the moment it's best to let sleeping monsters lie."

I could see that Rafferty wasn't used to being told what to do, and it was clear he didn't care for it one bit. But he ignored his bruised ego for the moment and laid his other hand on my forehead. His lips shaped one word. "Sleep." It wasn't audible to my ears, but I heard it ring in a series of echoes through my mind. Sleep. Over and over again until it was a never-ending litany. Sleep. Sleep.

And I did.