Gorgon Read online

  Nuri rested her chin on her palm, pursing her lips.

  “You’ve made a potentially fatal mistake, tonight,” she said. “That’s unlike you. You should tell me why.”

  Any other demon in the world, Samantha would have hit the door at speed, both because that’s what she knew she needed to do, to assuage her guilt, and because with any other demon in the world, those words would have been a trap. Nuri, though, and Kjarr by extension, had been a confidant to her for many years, and Samantha paused, considering.

  “Why did Kjarr go?” Samantha asked.

  “For you,” Nuri said, two fingers tapping slowly against her temple. “And because it’s worse for us if she falls into other hands than if she stays with you.”

  The beautiful woman watched Samantha passively as she decided whether to stay or go. Finally, as Samantha was still torn, Nuri drew breath to speak.

  “What has you acting so unlike yourself, child?”

  Samantha sat.

  “I don’t know. I thought it was just being alone.”

  “You’ve been alone before,” Nuri said. “Being with Carter hardly counts as with someone. You are surrounded by people who care about you. Many have spoken with admiration of the loyalty of your entourage.”

  “Demons?” Samantha asked with some sarcasm, and Nuri’s face lit with a perfect smile.

  “Even us, Sam. Our loyalty lies in contracts and coercion. It doesn’t mean we don’t wish for earnest affection. We just don’t wish to give it.”

  “You and Kjarr,” Samantha said, and the woman rolled into her back, sighing at the ceiling.

  “I am young among demons, for all my time here, and I’m often told that that’s why we can be what we are.”

  No one knew how long Nuri had been earthside. When you existed in culture after culture that had no related method of marking time, you probably couldn’t track, yourself. In that much time here, she’d missed millions upon millions of years hellside, and would be considered a baby, despite her enormous power and influence.

  “You are my friend,” Samantha said.

  “I am. But I am a demon. You do well, remembering it.”

  Samantha nodded.

  “I don’t know why I lost it tonight.”

  Nuri rolled her face to the side to look at her again.

  “It is very much not like you.”

  “What am I going to do if they get her?”

  “If Kjarr was in time, they will not. If he was not, you will recoup, you will form a plan, and you will recover her. It is what you do. You cannot change the outcome, any longer.”

  “I can’t believe I just walked away from her like that,” Samantha said. “That isn’t like me.”

  “How is your territory?” Nuri asked. “Is it burdening you overmuch?”

  “It’s not so bad, yet,” Samantha said. “There’s stuff going on, but it isn’t even because of my territory.”

  “Then what is it?” Nuri asked.

  “I don’t know,” Samantha said. “Sam.”

  Nuri looked at her with curiosity.

  “How many strays can you take in before you are overrun?”

  “Which strays are those?” Samantha asked.

  “The child. Your stony angel’s companion. The twins. Your wisp of a demon. The young angel. None of them are your equal.”

  “Who is?” Samantha asked. Nuri smiled.

  “Who is, indeed?” the woman asked.

  “Jason is one of us,” Samantha said.

  “I had heard,” Nuri said. “Who are you after, these days? Who are you hunting, Sam? There’s always someone.”

  “A demoness,” Samantha said. “A mist demon who spills magic through water and walks through dirt.”

  “Yes,” Nuri said. “I know of her.”

  “What do you know?” Samantha asked. Nuri shook her head.

  “Nothing I can tell you,” the woman said. Samantha resisted digging. It was rare that Nuri kept secrets when Samantha asked about them, but Samantha knew the woman had a deep trove of secrets that they never spoke about.

  “I may be back,” Samantha warned quietly, and Nuri inclined her head, unconcerned. They’d come to impasses before, and they’d worked through them.

  “What do you know?” Nuri asked.

  “I know I couldn’t kill her,” Samantha said.

  “Does that bother you?” Nuri asked.

  “How would it not?” Samantha asked.

  “And now Carter has taken your eyes,” Nuri said.

  “Jason did that,” Samantha said.

  “Yes. I heard that, too,” Nuri said. “So you came here.”

  “Yes,” Samantha said.

  “But not to see me,” Nuri said.

  “No,” Samantha answered.

  “You have a new life, child,” Nuri said, rolling her head back to look at the ceiling again. “You need to come to terms with it, and quickly, or it will be the end of you and the ones you care about. Go see to your people. I will send for you if there is something you need to know.”

  Samantha frowned. Nuri had never spoken to her like this. She stood slowly, then more quickly made her way out, down the hallway, and out of the club.

  <><><>

  A swordfight in a hotel room. Jason struggled to imagine something that could have been more fun, fighting between a furious angel and a freaking Viking.

  Though it did explain some things.

  <><><>

  Samantha got to the hotel and took the elevator up to her floor with growing apprehension. The doors opened and she stepped out into the hallway.

  It was quiet.

  She went to Isobel’s room to find the door open and ash in heaps on the floor.

  “Where is she?” Samantha asked.

  “Gone,” Kelly said. There was a trace of accusation, but he seemed worn, somehow.

  Kjarr sat on a bed watching as Kara bandaged Jason’s forearm.

  “Let me see,” Samantha said, glancing at Kelly, then going to look at the wound. “What happened?”

  “Hell if I know,” Jason said.

  “He hit a new fragment,” Kara said. “I did the speech as soon as I could.”

  Samantha nodded, feeling grim. He’d been in the middle of a fight when he’d fragmented. Worst-case scenario, short of screwing it up by changing it.

  “Dammit,” Jason said as Samantha pinched the slash across his forearm shut. It was on the outside, at least. He had a bruise under his cheek that was new, and it looked like Kara had already done his shoulder.

  “I’m going to stitch this,” she said. “Hold still while I get my kit.” She stood straight. “Wait. Who took her?”

  “She wasn’t here when I got here,” Kjarr said.

  Samantha held still.

  “Then why were you fighting?”

  “Why the hell not?” Jason asked.

  “There were demons,” Kelly added. “We killed them.”

  Samantha sighed. She needed to start putting together information, but that was going to wait. She was going to take care of Jason first.

  She looked again at Kelly, who returned the look with open reproach, now.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Samantha said. “I’m going to figure it out, and I’m going to make it right. Okay?”

  He pressed his mouth and nodded.

  She went back to her room and got her bag of medical supplies, going back and forcing herself to be patient with the work. She turned to Kjarr.

  “Thank you for keeping them safe,” she said. He stood, crossing his arms and nodding at Kelly. Samantha couldn’t see the kid’s reaction.

  “They had it well in hand when I got here,” Kjarr said. “I just stayed on for the fun.”

  “Hell yeah,” Jason said, motioning drunkenly.

  “What did you two do tonight?” Samantha asked Kara. Kara shook her head.

  “He’s dry. Just weird.”

  “I broke time,” Jason muttered. “Hell of a thing.”

  “Shut u
p, Jason,” Samantha said. “You’re making it worse.”

  “Is that what happens?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t answer questions,” she said. “You know that. Stop.”

  He grinned at the ceiling, then cursed reflexively in hellspeak as she continued with the stitches.

  “What is that?” Kara asked.

  “Means ouch,” Samantha said. Kjarr chortled. It was a loose translation.

  Jason stretched his neck away.

  “Funny to wake up in the middle of a horde of demons with Anadidd’na in my hands,” he said. “Funny.”

  “You did well,” Samantha said.

  “Can I bend time like this?” he asked.

  “Shouldn’t,” Samantha said. “It’s fragile, as it is. Kara told you that.”

  “She did,” Jason said. “But I wanted you to tell me. Been a long time since I’ve fought without it.”

  Samantha’s mouth was dry.

  “I need to find her,” she said. “I can’t let them keep her.”

  “I’m going to go,” Kjarr said. “All the fun’s done here and I’ve got more things to do at the club. Call if you need me.”

  Samantha glanced at him, still a bit shocked that he’d come, but nodded.

  “Thank you.”

  He gave her a giant grin.

  “Tell that handsome husband of yours I said hello,” he said and glitched. He liked Sam because he was tall. Samantha smiled despite herself.

  “How are we going to find her?” Kelly asked.

  “Why is she so important?” Jason asked.

  “No questions,” Samantha said. “None. Okay?”

  “Sorry,” Kelly said.

  “Him, not you,” Samantha said, the idea coming to her as she worked. “How much do you know about soulvesting?”

  “Some,” Kelly said. “Not very much. I don’t really understand it.”

  “That was Mom’s ring, wasn’t it?” Jason asked. Samantha glanced at him and he made a face. “What? I’m allowed to ask that, aren’t I?”

  “Yes. That was your mom’s ring,” Samantha said, looking down at her hand. She wore it now, her engagement ring from Sam.

  “Does she have a ring?” Jason asked.

  “No,” Samantha said. “But she has a statue. And it’s more than soulvested. It’s the thing that she’s attached to, here. I don’t know how it works, but if I’m careful, I might be able to find a way to use it.”

  “You can’t scry with a statue,” Jason said.

  “No,” Samantha said. “It’s not scrying. It’s soul-merging.”

  “It’s scrying,” Jason said belligerently and she glowered at him. He grinned.

  “I have to find her statue,” she said. “Kara, can you dial a number for me?”

  “What?” Kara asked.

  “She doesn’t dial phones,” Jason said. “Hell if I know why.”

  “You just want me to…”

  “Pick up the phone and dial a number,” Samantha said.

  “Any number?” Kara asked.

  “No, I know it,” Samantha said. Kara shrugged.

  “I can do that,” she said. Samantha gave her the number and Kara handed her the phone as it rang.

  Samantha gave the room number to the empty line and hung up.

  “I need to put together a plan,” she said. “Do some research. Go read. I have things I need to do. Someone will come clean up here. Be ready for anything in the morning, okay?”

  She looked at the three of them, feeling a chill at the lack of control she felt, but Nuri was right. She needed to focus. She need to get it together, and the first priority was getting Isobel back, which meant the first priority was to get her hands on that statue, with the knowledge she needed to use it.

  She nodded once, sucking on her tongue between her lips, then left.

  Kara and Jason followed her out into the hall, speaking quietly between themselves. She let herself into her room and let the door close behind her. It didn’t.

  She turned to find Jason holding it open with Kara standing behind him.

  He went to sit on the second bed in the room, Kara leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

  “Jason,” she said. “What is it?”

  “Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I do know you. And you aren’t right, right now. What’s up, sweetheart?”

  Her chest surged. Pain.

  “I’m going to fix it,” Samantha said.

  “That’s not what he asked,” Kara said. “We’re your friends, babe. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” Samantha said.

  “What does Sam think?” Jason asked.

  She shook her head.

  “I’ve been wearing my pin since the meeting.”

  “Meeting…” Jason said. She scolded herself. He hadn’t been to the meeting yet. She needed to be more careful about talking about timeline.

  “For a few hours,” she said.

  “Where is he?” Jason asked. “Why isn’t he here?”

  “He’s with Carter,” Samantha said.

  “Damn, Sam. How’d you let that happen?”

  “You’ll get there,” Samantha said. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “You should have told us you were going,” Kara said. “We’ve got your back. You don’t have to do this on your own.”

  “I need you taking care of him. He can’t fight. I mean, obviously,” Samantha said, motioning at his arm.

  “Where were you?” Jason asked.

  “Nuri’s,” Samantha said. He laughed. “What?” she asked.

  “If anyone’s going to understand being at a bar when you should have been somewhere else, it’s me,” he said. “You needed to talk to her. That’s fine. You should have said that.”

  “I just went,” Samantha said, shaking her head. “I didn’t need to see her.”

  He watched her for a minute, then slapped his knees and stood.

  “You’re staying with us tonight.”

  “What? No.”

  “I said it, I meant it.”

  Kara shrugged.

  “I don’t care,” she said. “Doesn’t bother me any.”

  “No,” Samantha said again. Jason started for the door, turning to look back at Samantha as he turned the handle.

  “Samantha,” he said gently. “Get your toothbrush. Come with us. That’s all.”

  She hesitated, glancing at Kara, who winked, then followed along after him.

  <><><>

  She only felt a little better in the morning. She slept, but she woke up anxious from frenzied dreams full of dead ends and confused searches. Jason sat up and looked around, then sighed. He looked at Samantha.

  “All right, let me have it,” he said.

  “What?” she asked. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

  “You know, waking up like that messes with me the most.”

  “Ah,” she said. “Right. Kara, where are we?”

  “Seven,” Kara called from the shower. Jason looked over his shoulder.

  “Where am I?”

  “New York,” Samantha said. He frowned.

  “Ah. Right. I think.”

  “This is seven,” Samantha said. “Your notebook is over there. Write down the number from your last fragment. You broke time. You need to protect yourself and the people around you from altering the future that you’ve already seen, if you’re going to make it to the end of the break without causing yourself serious injury or killing yourself. Yes, that is possible. Don’t ask questions, and don’t tell us anything about what has happened to you. Don’t bend time. Don’t use any magic that you don’t need to.”

  “You do know I don’t have any magic,” Jason said. “I mean, you know.”

  “Shut up, Jason,” she said. “Stay close to people you know. Sam, me, or Kara. Kelly can’t help you. When you get back to the beginning, the first fragment after you broke time - you’ll know which one that is - you need to tell Kara to bring you to me. I’m
going to see you through this. All right? I’m going to get you through it.”

  “You do that the best,” Jason said, standing. He collapsed back onto the bed and grabbed his shoulder. “Oh, wow that’s fresh.”

  “Don’t talk about it,” Samantha said. You’re just going to make it worse.”

  “Bad enough,” Jason said. “I smell like I need a shower. Are you making sure I bathe enough?”

  “You’ll live,” Samantha said, hoping it was true. “Kara’s in there now.”

  “Done,” Jason said. He looked at her like he wanted to say something, but Samantha frowned at him, and he kept moving. She went to brush her teeth, then went back to her room and got out a pad of paper, just to have a pen in her hand to help her think.

  Isobel was gone.

  The demoness was at large.

  Maryann was looking for the statue.

  Sam was gone. She didn’t know how long until she’d get him back.

  She could handle this.

  One thing at a time.

  She needed to get a list of ideas put together for using the statue, when her sniffer found it. Stock up supplies for those things.

  Meanwhile, she needed to visit her more reliable informants and let them know that she was looking for any information on someone who had turned up an angelic relic. She knew a lot of demons who might hear about interesting things going on in New York, but the list of demons who would know about a renegade demoness setting up hell factories in the middle of nowhere was significantly shorter.

  She started making lists.

  A couple of hours later, she answered the door to find Jason and Kara packed and in their gear.

  “I assume you have a plan?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she answered. “We’re going shopping. Let me get changed.”

  Jason looked her up and down and nodded. He’d seen this before. Carter would have called it a crutch, but she had too much else on her mind to summon the power from her own appearance. She wore black leather covered minimally with mesh. Great black boots. The skirt was one Kara had once admired for its slits up to the tops of her hips on each side. Eyeliner, lipstick, rings, plus earrings, and she was ready. Dark, dramatic, she would stand out in a crowd and anyone who knew her would know she meant business. She opened the door again and Jason looked up from where he was leaning against the opposite wall. He whistled and Kara turned around.