Ruled by Tainted Blood Read online

  “Well?” Foxner barked.

  “Well what?”

  “This is where they vanished, let’s see your skills.”

  I looked around, but no divine phoenixes appeared. I kept walking, the scent of magic lessening the further I went. Taint levels dropped around where the goblins probably closed the back of the van. A sudden uptick of magic made me sneeze.

  “Bless you,” Foxner said.

  We repeated the process two more times.

  “Thanks. Walk me through what happened,” I said.

  “I’m the detective,” Foxner said.

  I shot Foxner a flat look over folded arms. “Grow up.”

  “I’m older than you,” Foxner said.

  “No, you’re not, though you look it.”

  “You were only just born,” Foxner said.

  “If you want to take that tack, you’re older than this body, but not me,” I shot back. “Now, are you going to walk me through what happened or not?”

  Foxner grudgingly related her encounter with the goblins and the particulars of their escape. I asked a few questions to pluck details out from points that Foxner brushed over.

  “All right, I think I have the picture.”

  “Fine. Where did they go?”

  “I don’t know. I’m going to have to track them.”

  “How are you going to track them? They just vanished.” Foxner narrowed her eyes. “You just going to fly around until you spot them?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not using my true form in broad daylight unless I have no other choice.”

  “Then how—”

  I held up a hand.

  “Did you hear something?” Foxner asked.

  “No, I just want you to shut up.”

  Foxner drew her gun. “That’s it. I’ve had enough of this farce. You’re under arrest.”

  “How do you expect that to work?”

  “Get on your knees, hands behind your back.”

  “Or what? You’ll shoot me?” I asked.

  Foxner opened her mouth, hesitated, and then closed it.

  “Exactly. Shooting me won’t win you anything.”

  “I’ll feel better.”

  “While I’ve been there, it still won’t help.”

  Foxner holstered her weapon and marched forward. “Then we’ll do this the hard way.”

  I laughed. “Got a bucket?”

  “Huh?”

  “How are you going to apprehend water?”

  Foxner hesitated again.

  I rolled my eyes and vindictively turned my back on Foxner. I sank into my essence before the sound of the woman’s loafers reached me.

  I traded flesh for liquid in a painful rush. In my hurry, I forgot to account for my clothing.

  Foxner tackled me, diving straight through with only my shirt and bra to show for it.

  I marched over to her, drawing in lost essence and snatching the clothes away. “Damn it, you got my shirt dirty.”

  I clipped the bra on, rotated it around and pulled the straps over my watery shoulders then pulled the shirt over my head.

  “You’re a walking washing machine. Deal with it.”

  This woman makes me want to scream...or punch things...or scream while punching things...like her face.

  I sighed.

  But I won’t. She’s pig-headed but only trying to do her job. I’d leave her, but I have to keep track of her until Summus wipes her memory.

  I solidified, inhaling deeply through my nose. It itched, but I pinched it together to prevent another sneeze. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “You’re under arrest, you can’t just go.”

  “I’m not,” I said. “I’m tracking the goblins like we agreed.”

  “How?”

  “The glamour they used to disappear. Can’t you smell that?”

  Foxner took a few exploratory sniffs.

  I laughed.

  I meant that as a joke, I didn’t expect her to actually try.

  “I’ve had about enough of you,” Foxner growled.

  I ignored her, focusing on the problem at hand.

  The glamour used to disguise the goblin’s van left a line of taint in its wake. Tracking the scent wouldn’t be as simple as riding in Foxner’s car with my nose out the window. Taint aroma faded with time even before taking surface winds into account.

  Walking the taint path was just as likely fail on foot, and the longer goblins had Judith, the higher chance they’d do something she would care about.

  I closed my eyes and reached out to my seeds.

  Foxner slapped a cuff around one wrist, the metal closing around my arm with an angry ratchetting sound. I ignored the annoying officer, trying to sense glamour’s taint as it passed by my seeds. Unfortunately, the sentry net was composed of not just my seeds but those of the others which I had no way to feel

  Foxner wrenched my other arm around and into her cuffs.

  Despite my bravado, I’d never been forced to test essence shaping outside a rebalance. Having a bullet or sword force its way through my essences was painful but not difficult. Holding my form while an angry detective dove through me was like rebalancing while trying to resist a desperate need to pee during a powerful sneeze.

  “I knew you were bluffing.”

  I shifted into water and focused on my hands. Will thinned and stretched fingers. My hand bones narrowed until the cuffs slipped off my wrists.

  Foxner cursed. Her grabbing hand splashed through my shoulder, sending ripples that interrupted my concentration and removed my shirt once more.

  My eyes snapped open and bored into the human shield. “Do you mind?”

  “You’re under arrest.”

  “I’m trying to track the goblins, and you’re interrupting my concentration. A woman’s life is at stake here you know.”

  “I know that,” Foxner said. “Which is why I’m taking you in for answers if I have to call for backup and a shitload of sponges.”

  I gave Foxner a disgusted look. “You’re being unreasonable.”

  “Unreasonable is letting a confessed criminal waltz around free.”

  “Like you’ve never entered premises on probable cause alone.”

  Foxner opened her mouth, hesitated, then forged on. “That’s different. I’m a cop.”

  I closed the distance between us until my vision narrowed to only her flashing blue eyes. “For all intents and purposes, so am I.”

  “No. Did you graduate the academy at the top of your class? Did you work your way up in a misogynistic career forced to prove yourself every day? Have you sacrificed everything to be the best cop in Atlanta only to...” She trailed off.

  I softened my voice. “No. At least, not like that. I was created to do this job, but unlike you I’m not allowed to be anything else.”

  Her expression wavered.

  “You may feel trapped, but I’m chained to my job under constant supervision by a bunch of angels disgruntled because—” A thought froze the words in my mouth.

  “Because why?”

  Anima isn’t an AI, she’s something else, and she’s tied into the angel network. Does that mean my divine token too?

  I brought up the feather amulet, not having to bother easing it out of the shirt in Foxner’s hand. “Ani? Can you hear me?”

  “This is most unusual, Shield Quayla. I don’t know how Vilicangelus will react to abusing his token to contact me this way.”

  Foxner’s eyes narrowed. She tilted her head to hear better.

  “I’m tracking a glamour through the...sentry net but I can’t,” I eyed Foxner, making a decision, “I can’t access all of the...nodes.”

  “Why did you not contact me from your vehicle?” Anima asked.

  “Police Detective Foxner and I are using her vehicle.”

  “I see. Has Summuseraphi been notified?” Anima asked.

  “Yes, but he was called away before he could...be introduced to the detective,” I said.

  “Understood. Give me a
moment.”

  Foxner opened her mouth ask a question, but Anima replied before the words escaped the mortal’s lips.

  “I have traced taint fluctuations from your location through the seeds. There are a few variances, but I have an approximate location that I believe presents at least a seventy percent success probability.”

  “Damn,” Foxner mumbled. “That was fast.”

  “Thank you, Detective,” Anima said.

  Foxner started.

  I didn’t hide my amusement, but I did snatch my shirt back. I donned my top on the way back to Foxner’s car. “Where are we going, Ani?”

  The area Anima provided couldn’t be narrowed down enough for an actual address. Foxner headed downtown and through student housing around Georgia Institute of Technology. We cruised westward into progressively dilapidating neighborhoods.

  I caught sight of a similar van down a side street. “There.”

  “We’ll see,” Foxner turned, driving without hurry until the license plate came into her view. She gave me a sideline glance. “Guess so.”

  “Phoenix eyes were the model for eagles.”

  “I’m sure they were,” Foxner said.

  “Ani, we’ve found the van.”

  “Do you require backup?” Anima asked.

  “I don’t think my current partner will wait.”

  Foxner’s expression confirmed the statement with unspoken vulgarities. She parked, checked her weapon and got out of the car.

  I drew my hilts and marched toward the foul building with my nose lifted and nostrils flared. I pushed open a graffitied door, entering without a pause.

  Foxner’s harsh whispered followed from the detective’s cover position in the doorway. “Hey, slow down and check your corners. Are you some kind of rookie?”

  I bristled. “No. I’m a full shield.”

  “Sloppiness and inattention will get you killed.”

  I turned, planting a hand on one hip. “So?”

  Foxner was correct in a lot of ways. I only had two rebirths in my nest, and I’d suffered a lot of agony supplying those. Still, the detective irritated me. I had the goblins’ trail even over the stench of garbage and marijuana smoke. I knew they were housed up two floors, and I really wanted to prove to the arrogant wafer which of us was the better shield.

  I continued my march toward the elevator.

  A backward glance found Foxner still at the entry door. I reached out to press the elevator door, but froze at the sudden wash of nausea radiating up through my finger. A spider web of runes glowed into view around the button in anticipation of activation.

  The stairwell door exploded outward. Two goblins with serrated short swords leapt at me. Their eyes widened to lock on the shimmering karambit blades extended from my hilts.

  “Freeze, hands on your heads!”

  One of the goblins turned, his off hand reaching for his belt.

  I sprang down the hall, sickness washing up my arms as karambit blades cut downward through both goblin skulls.

  “What the fuck!?” Foxner said as the tops of their heads slid away to fall on the filthy, pitted linoleum. A goblin throwing knife clattered across the floor with a gentle spin.

  “You’re welcome,” I retracted my essence and slid the hilts into my jean’s belt loops.

  Blighted hells, I didn’t even sense them.

  “You killed our suspects.”

  “One of them was about to bury that knife in your face, detective.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of cop? You didn’t even warn him.”

  “I don’t have to warn them,” I snapped.

  “So, you’re what? Judge, jury and executioner?”

  “If they’re threatening a mortal, I am His justice.”

  Assuming I can get away without leaving any witnesses.

  “God said you could kill them?”

  “That’s right.”

  “That sounds a lot like the same crap people use to rationalize holy wars.”

  I marched across the distance, ignoring how Foxner raised her pistol. “Except I’ve actually heard His voice. I’m a Shield of the Undying Light. He created me and my kind to defend wafers like you from the Sidhe.”

  “I wasn’t the one about to be jumped,” Foxner retorted.

  “I knew they were there.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Whatever, you’re welcome, wafer.”

  “I’m not a wafer, whatever they are.”

  I stabbed a finger at Foxner.

  She leapt back and put two bullets into my torso.

  Pain flashed through me like twin lightning strikes. Neither bullet struck a mortal target. Before reading Primal Battle, I’d have been in poor shape even though I wouldn’t have died.

  I pushed essence into the holes and growled. Fury raged through me, roaring like river rapids careening through a narrow canyon. “You’re a blind, arrogant mortal, a plain vanilla wafer without the sense He gave your kind. You’ve given us away, ruined my blouse and pissed me off, so I suggest you go back to your car.”

  “Or what?” Foxner backed away with her gun lowered until she had enough space to snap a shot at my head. “If you’re supposed to protect humans, I seriously doubt you can just kill me.”

  “Accidents happen,” I whispered.

  Before I did something I’d regret, I threw open the stairwell door and jogged up the steps hoping for more goblins.

  “What about the bodies? We have to call in a shooting.”

  “Not my problem. Besides, how are you going to explain goblins?” I pushed open the second-floor stairwell door and inhaled a deep breath. I’d been sure there were no goblins on the first floor, sure they were all on three—and I’d been wrong.

  I shouldn’t have missed them. I was careless. I won’t let that happen again.

  I jogged up the next flight ahead of the detective, whispering into my feather amulet to have Anima send putti out to clean up and removed the trap spell from the elevator.

  On the switchback between second and third floors, a beautifully rendered angel looked down upon me. Evergreen and violet spray paint tagged vulgarities across the exquisite graffiti. The faerie vandalism marred Caelum’s seed, rendering it inert. Even so I paused to look at his art, so much more than my simple fountains.

  Wow, Caelum, just wow.

  I stopped on the third-floor landing, glancing back at Foxner. “Oh, and have them fix a couple new bullet holes and make the detective replacement rounds.”

  “Did she try to shoot the goblins?” Anima asked.

  “No. She shot me. The faster Summuseraphi can get to us the better.”

  “Who’s Summuseraphi?” Foxner asked. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned him,”

  “My sergeant,” I eased into the hall so I wouldn’t have to answer any more questions.

  The first floor was grungy, but the third was falling apart. The hall reeked in so many ways I couldn’t separate them. Carpet and wallpaper had fed countless insects and several mold colonies. Shoes of all kinds had worn the cheap carpeting shiny, and clawed goblin feet had torn holes to help start the moths.

  I readied my blades, following my growing nausea down the hall. I stopped at a door, gesturing at it with my glowing knives. Once Foxner got into position, I kicked in the door. “By the Undying Light, I command your surr—hells!”

  Machine gun fire exploded out of the wall, obliterating the dry wall and filling the hall with asbestos dust. I grabbed Foxner, turned my back to the attack in the hope that my body’s bulk might shield her and drove us through the opposite apartment door. We hit the ground, sliding into a shredded mattress converted into a rat nest.

  Foxner’s grunts were lost beneath gunfire, disgruntled squeaking, and the screaming pain riddling me. It was sheerest luck that I wasn’t already back at headquarters in a new body. I cobbled together all the concentration I could manage, transmogrifying my body into water and rebalancing my essence.

  Part of me want
ed to complete the transmog and treat the gunmen to my talons, but I had no idea who was behind the Swiss-cheesed apartment wall.

  Foxner grabbed my arm, trying to keep me down. She only managed to remove my blouse. I smirked, converting the rest of my clothes into liquid. “What is it with you and taking off my clothes?”

  “Stay down. I’ll call for backup.”

  I fixed her with a hard smile and stood. “I don’t need backup. Stay safe, Detective. I’ll be right back.”

  I strode back into the hallway. I heard the detective moving behind me, but kept my focus forward. Another round of machine gun fire ate away at what remained of the wall, exposing a group of mortal thugs with uncertain expressions.

  Bullets splashed through me, dragging trails of essence from my body. “By the Undying Light, I command you to lay down your arms and get on your knees.”

  “We gave you what you desired, stop her!” A goblin darted through a freestanding Arch behind the mortals.

  Fae Kissed. Well, that makes things easier.

  My failure with Emma and Bootsie flashed through my thoughts on a magic carpet woven of purest guilt. I’d been unable to kill her, even though she’d clearly been Fae Kissed. I considered not offering the gunmen a chance to repent, mostly because they shot at me, but also because I had every right to execute them outright for threatening a mortal life.

  Not good enough. I have a duty.

  “In His name, you will surrender boons provided by the faeries and repent your sins.”

  “Repent this, bitch.”

  A shotgun blast tore through my torso from one side, staggering me. The amount of mass displaced sent me off balance, tripping on an ammunition box of some sort. I flicked one karambit as I fell, whipping the blade through the bridge of the shooter’s nose.

  I extruded another simultaneous with drawing in my now filthy essence from the floor around me. “On your knees, weapons down or die.”

  They opened fire.

  One of the thugs lurched backward in a spray of blood. A moment later, a second took two slugs to his center mass. The Fae Kissed turned their attention to Foxner as she reloaded.

  I launched myself at them, my scream becoming a shriek as I transmog’d into my native form. I offered no mercy. I’d done my duty. I’d offered them absolution, but I was not going to let them harm the detective no matter how big a pain in the ass she was.