I took the most direct route to the shoe section, kicked off the UGGs, and bought the first decent pair of work boots I could find. Nothing fancy, but if someone needed a tree cut down, I could probably handle it. I snapped the tags, shoved the UGG boots into the box, then started toward the checkout on the other end of the store.
Eleanor had drifted maximum distance from me. She was studying an end shelf filled with Halloween trinkets and decorations.
I took a couple steps, expecting her to follow. She stood there, bent just a bit, her long, ghostly hair covering her face as she stared at something in the shelf.
I walked around behind her, looked over her shoulder.
Jack-o’-lanterns, witches, ghosts with smiling faces, and a Frankenstein stein cluttered the shelf. But behind all the cheerful candy-colored decorations was a single statue. Made out of metal that had been treated to a green patina, it was the figure of a cloaked and cowled man, head tipped down, face hidden in the shadows. He held a scythe by the handle, the curved blade at his feet, as if he were too weary to lift it again. And spread wide across his back were angel wings.
The angel of death, grieving.
“You like it?” I asked her, not caring about the woman who looked up at me and hurried away.
Eleanor just shrugged one shoulder. But she did not look away from it.
I picked it up. Was impressed at the weight and craftsmanship.
“Let’s go,” I said softly.
Eleanor looked from me, to the statue, then back to me. She gave me a small smile.
I bought the boots, the statue, and a pack of cigarettes. Made my way toward the front of the store. Passed in front of a stockroom door and noted a guy walking out of it.
Walked past him before I heard the click.
I turned.
Did not expect the Taser in that man’s right hand, nor the gun in his left. I also didn’t expect the other two guys who strode out of the sporting goods and household paint aisles.
I called on magic, just as the guy with the guns raised them both and pulled a trigger.
Heads or tails. Would I be shot or electrocuted? Heads said bullets.
Before I could raise my hand for a spell, before I could lash out and drain their lives down, someone flipped a switch and a million volts of electricity blew through me.
Huh. It was tails: electrocution.
I came to being dragged away from bright lights and basketballs, and into the stale, cold stockroom.
Maybe another door went by. Then the two guys who had my arms over their shoulders dropped me into a chair.
I decided not to let them know I was conscious.
They stepped away and a new set of boots came closer.
“I know you’re awake, Shamus,” Jeremy said. “Don’t make me shoot you to prove it to my men.”
I opened my eyes, tipped my head back. He wasn’t holding a gun, but the four other guys around me were.
Bullets are faster than magic. Even my magic.
“Some reason why you don’t want to face me alone, Jeremy?” I asked. “That’s an awful lot of firepower for a junkie piece of crap like me, don’t you think?”
He was a good five feet away from me, and didn’t come any nearer. “You have two options here.” He started like I hadn’t even been talking. “You either leave town, leave Terric, and leave me the hell alone, or we will kill you.”
I rolled a shoulder and wondered if that blast of electricity and the drugs Eli had shot me up with were going to get in the way of me killing this prick.
“Really?” I said. “Is this how you Black Crane lads take care of your problems? Threats in department stores? Does anyone ever fall for that?”
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed. “I could kill you before you took another breath.”
“What’s stopping you?” I asked. Really, I was curious.
From the fear that slipped across his eyes, I suddenly knew what it was. He wasn’t sure I’d die. After all, I carried Death magic in my bones and that hadn’t killed me. He probably thought a bullet or two wouldn’t work either.
He’d be wrong.
I hoped.
“Let’s get this straight,” he said. “I am giving you one chance to get out of my sight, and out of our territory.”
“I don’t think Terric would like that,” I said.
“Terric isn’t your concern.”
“Well, you’re wrong about that, mate. Terric is my concern. As a matter of fact”—I pushed up onto my feet to the accompaniment of his boys racking the slides and lifting their weapons toward my head—“you have suddenly made yourself my concern. This is not a good move on your part.”
I didn’t wait for him to threaten me again. I didn’t wait for him to snap his fingers so his minions would blow my brains out.
I let the monster free. Death magic lashed out, dark whips hooking tightly into each gunman, cutting down to bone, piercing organs. The rush of drawing on their lives rocked through me in a wave of adrenaline and orgasmic need.
In that split second, four men collapsed to the floor, unconscious, while Jeremy was reaching for the inside of his jacket.
“You pull a gun, and I will kill you,” I said. No more nice. The monster in me was lapping down those men’s lives, even while Eleanor was standing in front of me yelling at me to stop. I wasn’t listening. I wanted more. I wanted Jeremy.
Jeremy smiled. Just half of his mouth cut upward to gave a quick flash of teeth. He wasn’t a stranger to death. Didn’t look afraid of me now. “What would Terric say if you killed me?”
“‘My boyfriend? Again?’”
Okay, that was worth it. He blinked. All that smugness drained away.
“Here’s how this goes,” I said, strolling over to him. “You are going to go back to your bosses, and tell them that if the Black Crane crosses my path, or the path of any one of my friends, I will take it as a personal insult, and I will kill every single person involved in the organization. Every last person. You will tell them that Terric is no longer their toy. They, and you, are no longer allowed anywhere near him. You will tell them that I am watching and that I would be delighted—” I licked my lips and one of the men on the floor screamed and writhed. “—to remove them all, permanently, from this world.”
“You think you have the power here?” His voice shook a little, but he managed some scorn. “Go home to your bottle, Shamus. You’re nothing.”
I nodded, thought about just how easy it would be to kill him, how easy it would be to kill whatever was left of those men on the floor.
Eleanor stood in front of me and pushed her hand on my chest.
No, in my chest. Until her icy fingers wrapped around my heart.
Ow.
She shook her head and then pointed at the unconscious gunmen. Alive. Maybe alive. I didn’t care.
But looking away from Jeremy gave him the time to pull his gun.
Well, that was stupid of me. Stupid of him too, come to think of it.
“You’re a dead man, Shamus.”
I laughed. He didn’t know how true that was.
The fear rolling off him was palpable. He was sweating so hard I didn’t know how he kept hold of the gun.
I reached out with magic.
His finger twitched. Bullets are fast. The silencer smothered the explosion.
Pain blew through my upper arm, as his shot went wide.
Jesus.
Eleanor was already on him, both hands around his gun hand. He stiffened from her icy touch, his eyes wide as his hand went numb.
I tore the gun from his useless hand, pulled the clip, and threw it across the warehouse. The pain in my left arm was excruciating, but I fed it to the Death magic inside me, pain from dying cells, torn nerves, ripped muscle, broken skin feeding my hunger.