Lies & Omens

She braced herself in the width of the space, heard voluptuous movement in the darkness, like velvet rolling over stone, and tightened her grip on her gun. One last breath, and she dropped.

The floor was farther down than she’d hoped—one of those office buildings that prided itself on high ceilings—and forced a grunt out of her. Her free hand felt damp marble; she smelled fear sweat and blood and bile, and it was cold enough she thought her breath must be clouding the air before her. It made no sense. It was Miami, for God’s sake, and the power was out. The rooms should be gaining heat, not losing it.

It was the cold of morgues, of underground mausoleums, dank like an abandoned animal’s lair. Empty of everything but death.

Sylvie’s fingers were sticky, clammy with old blood; she brushed them against her sleeves, felt the contaminant liquefy and seep into the fabric, chilling her. She was the only breathing thing she could hear, her heart a desperate drum looking for an echo. Death rolled over her like a shroud.

She was alone, and everyone else was dead and gone—rotting—and she was alone. Her breath seized.

Riordan dropped to the ground beside her, said, “When you enter a hostile room, clear the area and get out of the way, dammit, do you know nothing?” It was like a wave breaking. An external influence breaking. Her ears popped; the sound of the world returned in a roar of gunfire and Riordan muttering about untrained lone wolves with delusions of competence.

Even her skin felt dry and warm again, the cold blood only an illusion of some kind. She should have known better.

“Powell, get down here,” Riordan said.

Harsh panting was the only answer, and Sylvie turned. Riordan flashed the penlight once, briefly, and Powell jerked. His eyes had iced over, gone cataract white, faintly luminescent in the blackness. He pointed his gun at them, and said, “You’re trying to kill me! It’s a trap, and you want to grind me up in it!”

Sylvie darted away from the elevator doors, running blind in the darkness, away from Powell’s shooting after them. She heard Riordan keeping pace, a rhythm of footsteps and breath beside her. He veered suddenly, tackled her to the floor.

She punched him. He reeled, and said, “There’s a staircase, Shadows. You were heading straight for it. Say thank you.”

“You deserved it anyway,” Sylvie growled. “My sister’s somewhere in this nightmare, isn’t she?”

“She should be safe,” Riordan said. “Locked up nice and tight. Do you know what we’re dealing with?”

“Something that’s radiating influence. I think your men are killing each other, losing it like Powell did.”

“Like you did?” Riordan said.

Sylvie swallowed, said, “How better to know what’s going on than to let it affect me for a moment?” Sounded good. She wished it were true. “What about you. You going to start shooting at me?”

Her eyes were finally adjusting to the darkness. She couldn’t see anything much, but she got the sense of shapes, the slightly paler black where the walls were, the endless black gap where the stairs were, the moving darkness where Riordan shifted to a crouch. If she read the space right, they were on a balcony overlooking the lobby below. Stairs ahead. Offices to her left. A glass barrier between her and a long fall. Echoes of gunfire bounced off the ceiling and made it hard to tell if fights were going on above and below or just echoing upward. A sudden draft, a rush of displaced air suggested a body falling from above. The gruesome thud and crunch of that same body hitting the floors below suggested that both directions were treacherous.

Riordan swore quietly, said, “If I shoot you, Shadows, you can be sure I’ll be doing it of my own will. Not someone else’s.”

“You’re immune?”

“I’ve never been one for feeling fear. What are we facing, Shadows?”

“Headaches and a good possibility of bullet holes? I don’t know. I didn’t know in the elevator, and I don’t know now. I can make some guesses. It’s a monster. It’s not happy.”

“Can you kill it?”

Sylvie shivered. Her little dark voice whispered. We can kill anything. “First I have to find it.” That wouldn’t be hard, really. The monster would be ground zero, the only calm place in the midst of chaos, spreading its influence—those inky tendrils—wider and wider. “It’d be easier if there were lights. I thought you agency types were big on emergency power supplies.”

“We are,” Riordan said. “But our generators are inside the building. Vulnerable to bullets, or men under the influence.”

“Okay. Two questions. How many men do you have left?”

“None of your business.”

“If I have to fight my way through them, it is. I’m not bulletproof.”

“You keep saying that.”

“It bears repeating.” It was comforting in a panic-inducing sort of way. She might be immortal, but she was still human.

“More men than you’d like,” Riordan said. “We were transitioning from the hotel to this building after the earlier attacks on the other ISI branches, trying to minimize civilian risk.”

“Good job, then,” Sylvie said. “Too little, too late.”

“This is hardly the time to assign blame,” Riordan said. “Would you prefer to argue or survive?”

Sylvie hated to admit it, but he was right. “Fine. Second question. Flashlights?”

He passed her back the penlight, and she said, “That’s not gonna cut it. I need to see what I’m walking into.”

“Demanding,” he said. “Wait here.”

“Get two if you can.”

He shifted around her, made her realize that their drop-and-hide spot was more sheltered than she’d thought—she reached back, felt a jut in the wall. An alcove looking over the lobby. If this were a real office building, it would probably have held a water fountain.

She had time to think. Time to kill. She laughed, soundlessly, a little closer to hysteria than she’d admit. Hunting monsters in the dark to save her sister, and God, Demalion—where was he in all this? Locked up tight with Zoe? Safe? Or roaming the halls, shooting at everything he could. If Demalion was out there, prone to the same panic that Powell had fallen prey to, he’d be lethal. Paranoia plus psychic abilities? Ugly.

She wished she knew what she was dealing with. It wasn’t a succubus. Wasn’t anything attached to elements: no sand wraiths, no mermaids, no fiery salamanders, and, despite the smoky tentacles in the air, she didn’t think it was any type of air elemental.

It wasn’t a succubus, but it was something that worked on a similar principle. Used the body to overwhelm the brain. Whatever this was spread panic and paranoia as easily as a succubus spread lust and hunger.

Movement near her, and she turned, a “Took your time” on her lips. It wasn’t Riordan. She caught the faint glimmer of eyes with an icy shine and held her breath. The tainted agent went past, limping, his breath wheezing and whispering out insanity. Not my teeth. Can’t take them. Not for you. Kill you first.

Sylvie wiped her face. This was all a little too zombie apocalypse for her. She wondered if Zoe was terrified, pissed, or trying to work magic. She wondered if Zoe was still alive.

Riordan returned, passed her a flashlight, kept his hand over the switch, and said, “Don’t turn it on yet.”

“Not stupid,” Sylvie murmured. “You get one for yourself?”

“I did.”

“Good. While I’m hunting monsters? You’re going to fix the damn generator.”

7 Bureaucracy & Other Monsters