City of Souls

he took the physical form of a person’s expectations. I’d seen him as a casino mobster, a suave college instructor…and a hairless, spine-horned demon. To be honest, that was the visage I preferred. At least I knew exactly what I was up against when staring into the face of a demon.

My allies pulled in tighter as a result of his arrival, but we held our ground. As powerful as the Tulpa was, even he couldn’t violate a safe zone.

“My gawd, Harrison. You’ve practically dismantled that agent. And yet her allies are just standing around talking.” He sauntered into the entry, hemmed in the doorway like he was both posing for a picture and caught in its frame. He smiled slyly at me. “And you call yourself the Kairos.”

That’s what they called me. “I call myself the Archer.”

“And Joanna,” he said lightly, tilting his head. “What else?”

“Nothing I can repeat in such polite company.”

His eyes traced the mask covering my eyes, temples, and hairline, and his fingers twitched reflexively, causing me to smile. He’d been angling for my Olivia Archer identity for months now.

Reining in the need for a little while longer, he folded his hands before him and settled into himself. “Well, you should check the temper, daughter. That’s how I pinpointed you.”

That brought my black humor to an abrupt halt. “My temper?”

“Anger is a gift. In this case, my gift to you. It lurks in your heart as surely as my blood resides in your veins. It’s how I found you.”

“Bullshit.” I was not linked to the foul nonhuman being. Not in any way that mattered. “You orchestrated this.”

He shrugged. “Of course. But I can’t stand around waiting all day for my troop to capture an agent of Light, torture her-bonus points for inventiveness, Harrison-”

Harrison smiled, and both Felix and Micah strained forward like they were leashed.

“-and draw the rest of you in. I’m a busy man.”

“Yes, your dates with Skamar must keep your calendar quite full,” I said.

Finally, a barb that hit home. His overly pleasant expression fell and his nostrils widened. Skamar was the Tulpa’s nemesis, enemy, and equal. Also a tulpa, and as such, she was the first being he’d never been able to completely overcome. And though new to the valley, she also had a power he did not: she was named.

Where was Skamar, anyway?

The Tulpa settled himself, pulled at his jacket sleeves, then sniffed once as he lifted his nose into the air. His placid gaze landed directly on me.

“Kill them,” he said softly. The glyphs on every agent of Light’s chest shot to life. Depicted in comic books as a superhero’s lettering across the chest, they only did so when in danger, but we were in a safe zone, so for a moment no one moved.

Then the Tulpa tilted his head and the Shadows surged forward. I saw hands go up all around the room, the Light deflecting the advance and turning the Shadow agents’ powers upon themselves. But they kept on coming. Vanessa managed to force a scream past her tongueless mouth, and it hit me then, as it did all the Light: she hadn’t been struggling so vehemently to get free. She’d been struggling to warn us. We were not safe here.

I only had one second to return my attention to the Tulpa, catching the anger and hatred in the red flare of his eyes, before the order of the world turned upside down. He flicked a finger, and even though I was twenty feet away, I was catapulted through the air to slam head first into an ornate concrete pillar. On one level I was aware of the activity around me-the Light fleeing, conduits useless, no offense available to them but a good defense; the Shadow chasing, battle cries in their throats; Vanessa struggling, screaming and forgotten on the far side of the bakery-but blanketing all that concern was one greater than the rest.

I lifted my head slowly and found the Tulpa staring at me, his eyes as glittering and hard as our city’s night- soaked grid of lights. He bared teeth of chipped granite…and he charged.

I froze amidst the pile of crumbled plaster, knowing I’d never escape that wheeling vortex of limbs. He was a rocket, faster than anything I’d ever seen, and when a scream escaped that decaying mouth, the building shook, plaster and tiles fell from the ceiling, bulbs shattered in their sockets, and I ducked.

A wall of sheet silver appeared between us, too instantly for the Tulpa to avoid. The crash was like a car wreck, and I looked over to find Tekla with both arms outstretched. So we weren’t entirely powerless.

“Get Vanessa!” she yelled, flinging up wall after wall as the Tulpa, screaming now, continued to punch through them. I bolted. We were lucky; Vanessa’s opposite was Regan, now an outcast, and Tekla’s had been Zell, whom I’d helped kill last month. But the Cancerian Shadow, Drake, had heard Tekla’s cry, and was reaching for Vanessa along with me. Without thinking, I pulled out the Micro Uzi-the weapon I’d thought useless-and rolled off an ear- shattering round from arm’s distance away. No, mortal weapons wouldn’t kill him. But as evidenced by Vanessa- they were still effective. He jerked backward, spraying blood.

I didn’t waste time on Vanessa’s ropes. I just swung the Uzi to one side and picked up the entire chair with the other hand. It wasn’t heavy, just awkward, and with Tekla covering my back, thrusting up walls to cover my retreat, I ran. Outside, I vaulted over the ornamental wall, silently apologizing to Vanessa for the rough landing, but kept spraying bullets at anything that moved…or moved too fast. I was one of those things, of course-fleeing so fast that all the mortals would see was a blur-but fast and fast enough were two different things.

With our lives depending on it, I put on the speed. I needed to be the latter.

4

My phone rang in my pocket.

“Peppermill. Cab. Hurry.”

Warren. Without preamble. Or good-bye.

Carrying Vanessa as gingerly as possible, I headed to the Peppermill Lounge, formerly another safe zone. Gregor masqueraded in the mortal world as a cab driver and regularly parked behind the classic Vegas lounge. So I knew both he and Warren had made it there safely.

Fifteen minutes later, Hunter and Felix gingerly took Vanessa from my arms. Micah patted the space next to him in the cab, which meant there wasn’t a lot of it, and I clamored into the backseat, practically on his lap as I pulled the door shut behind me.

“We’ll have to circle because of all the blood,” Warren told Gregor, who took off in a screech of rubber and exhaust. Vanessa’s blood was already scenting the air.

Gregor nodded. “I’ll hit the beltway from the Strip. It circles the entire valley.”

“One pass,” Warren agreed. “Then we drop Micah, Hunter, and Vanessa at the warehouse.”

Located in industrial Vegas, the troop’s warehouse wasn’t a safe zone, but right now it was as safe as we were going to get. Hunter, our weapons master, crafted our conduits there, but more importantly, there was a panic room where Vanessa could hide.

“I’m going too,” Felix said in a tight voice. Warren drew in a breath, but only hesitated momentarily before nodding. Felix would be a wreck if he was trapped in the sanctuary, not knowing how Vanessa was doing. He was a wreck now, arms hanging helplessly, afraid to touch her anywhere. She groaned as we hit a speed bump.

“Where’s Tekla?” I asked as we flew up the on ramp.

No one answered.

“Where’s Tekla?” If she’d gone down while saving me…after Vanessa had endured this because of me…

“Calm the fuck down!” Warren yelled, half turning in his seat. “He’s following us!”

“I’m trying.” But the thought of the Tulpa tracking us had the opposite effect of calming me. Gregor glared at me through the rearview mirror.

“Jo!”

“Shut up!” I closed my eyes and thought of grassy fields and fuzzy bunnies and shit. But my anxiety had spiked and the fields were burning up behind my lids, the bunnies turning into blood-splattered carcasses.