Authors: C L Walker

Tags: #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Spies & Politics, #Assassinations, #Supernatural, #Ghosts, #Psychics, #Witches & Wizards, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Superheroes, #Literature & Fiction, #Horror, #Dark Fantasy, #Thrillers, #Metaphysical & Visionary, #New Adult & College, #Superhero

Dark Game (Merikh Book 1) (26 page)

“How does he know?”

“That you’re alive? A message from a god, apparently.”

“Merikh,” Mouse said in my ear. “What’s happening? I didn’t see anyone enter on the cameras.”

“You wouldn’t have,” I replied, forgetting to hide her eavesdropping.

“Is that Angelica?” Zubin said. “Or Mouse, rather. I admire your work, my lady.”

“She says bite me.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Zubin stood and I stepped back, my hands rising reflexively into a fighting stance.

“You have nothing to fear, Merikh,” he said. He smiled and it was a perfect blend of threatening and comforting, two extremes that shouldn’t have been possible on one face and yet there he was, pulling it off.

“I fear going back to DeLacy,” I said, slowly lowering my hands.

“Well.” He shook his head, disappointed with me. And I cared what he thought. Somehow he’d brought me to heel without me noticing. “That can’t be avoided. You’ve broken one of the few rules we have and you must be punished.”

“You mean put on trial.”

“Of course, of course. Then punished.”

“No innocent until proven guilty, then?” I wanted to keep talking in the hope that I could do it until the end of the universe. I hadn’t come up with a better plan, so I was going with what I had in hand.

“That isn’t how it works.” He raised a single finger between us. “You have one day to get your affairs in order. Say your goodbyes, hand over the trinkets you’ve accumulated out here in the world. Perhaps spend a final night with Patty. She seems nice.”

“It isn’t like that.” I hadn’t spent much time at all with Patty since we’d gotten back from Midway, and whatever sparks that might have been there had been doused in the destruction of her home town.

“Of course not, but you’re a handsome young man. Have a night on the town and see what you can do.” He lowered his finger and shook his head again. His eyes never left me, like a predator watching prey. “You’ve built a life for yourself out here and I respect that. Not many who run ever manage it.”

“Then let me stay.” I was whining and I couldn’t stop myself. I felt like a child before an authority figure, and in a way I was. Compared to him I had barely lived at all.

“One day. Come to me tomorrow night or I’ll come to you.” He reached into his tux jacket and retrieved a matchbook. It was for the Gloria Hotel, of course. “I’ll be in the lobby.”

“And if I don’t come?”

“Then I will come fetch you, of course.” He grinned as though it was the most ridiculous question I could have asked, and it probably was. “Don’t make me do that.” He turned to leave and made it halfway to the door before turning back. “One more thing, I’m afraid. I’ll need you to put the ring back where you found it.”

Mouse spoke in my ear. “What the hell is going on, Merikh? Who is this guy?”

“I can’t do that,” I said, ignoring her. “I need it to help a friend.”

He took a step toward me and it took everything I had not to raise my hands again.

“Put it back.” He said it with that confidence I couldn’t emulate, as though simply saying the words would make them so. I was tempted to do it, or frightened that if I didn’t he’d force me to. “We do not concern ourselves with the affairs of the disciples, the gods, or the remnants unless they directly engage us. Has the man who owns this house directly engaged you?”

“I need it to—”

“Answer me.”

I’d faced down a god in an alley and a prime disciple in his temple, but this man in his tux terrified me more than anything I’d seen since leaving the clan. He could take me apart with little effort, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

My mouth was dry as I shook my head, anyway. “I need it.”

He paused and for a moment I thought he’d leave it alone, let me keep the ring and chalk my defiance up to youthful stupidity. No such luck.

“I have given you the gift of a day, Merikh. I don’t have to do that.” He was no longer getting ready to leave. Now he stood with his shoulders squared, facing me, ready to do what he’d been sent here to do.

I licked my lips. “Then let’s do this.” I raised my hands and tried to prepare, but my mind wouldn’t blank. I couldn’t focus on him over the thought of what he was about to do to me.

“Keep him talking,” Mouse said. “I’ve set off the alarm in the office. Morgan is on his way.”

Zubin stepped forward and I stepped back, raising my hands in surrender. When I was sure he wasn’t going to go through with it, anyway, I slowly retrieved the ring from my pocket and held it up.

“Now put it back, and let’s go.” Zubin’s hands were back in his pockets, his demeanor still relaxed.

I turned slowly and stepped back into the room. He didn’t follow me but he was able to see what I was doing well enough to know if I followed his order. I opened the case and reached in, the ring gripped tight between my fingers.

“Five seconds,” Mouse said.

“Are you sure you don’t want to let me keep it?” I said. “Think of it as a going away present. Or coming home present, or whatever.”

“You are trying what little patience—”

The door behind him burst open and one of the guards who’d been patrolling the corridors burst in. He had the standard issue submachine gun raised and ready to fire. I stepped out of the room and let the case close with a bang.

Zubin turned and struck in one move, smoothly taking the weapon with one hand and driving a short knife into the guard’s eye with the other. The guard collapsed to the floor, screaming. Zubin completed the move, turning back to face me.

“Did you do this?”

I held my tongue, more because I didn’t have anything particularly useful to say. Mouse would have had a great line to spout before the rest of the guards arrived, but I couldn’t get the image of how casually he’d dispatched the guard from playing on a loop in my head.

Morgan appeared at the door, an enormous revolver in his hand. When he saw the guard rocking in a fetal position on the floor, he stepped back and waved the gun in our direction.

A half dozen men had accompanied their boss and they began stepping into the room one at a time. And one at a time, Zubin took them out.

The first seemed not to realize the danger he was in and got the same treatment as his colleague, and went down screaming as easily. The second fired a shot, but Zubin was already moving and it hit the wall of books nearest me.

The assassin master took hold of the man’s weapon and twisted it out of his hands, then drove the stock into his throat, crushing it. He turned the gun around and destroyed the face of the next man, emptying the magazine before tossing the gun at guard number four. It hit him in the stomach and distracted him long enough for Zubin to appear in front of him and drive a blade into his heart.

I missed the following two; Zubin had taken the fight to them and they were out in the hall. But he was back in a couple of seconds, ready to deal with me.

“I need an exit,” I said.

“The window?” Mouse replied.

I could break it with the expensive chair if Zubin turned around again, or dive through it if he came at me. Either way I was going to fall a long way to the ground, at which point the assassin master would be on me.

I heard the click – the sound of the hammer pulling back – as Neal Morgan pulled the trigger on his revolver. I would have been dead if he’d been aiming at me, but Zubin moved supernaturally fast. He turned to deal with the arms dealer, and I had my opening.

I didn’t have time to toss the chair so I moved to the center of the room and ran at the window. I leapt onto the desk and off again, barreling at the glass and preparing for the pain of the landing.

I bounced off the glass, smacking my head and rebounding into the desk. I fell to the floor, my legs tangled in the chair.

“Window isn’t an option,” I said softly as I scrambled to my feet. My front teeth felt loose and my head had started thumping, but otherwise I was fine.

Zubin was waiting for me in the middle of the room. He held Morgan in place with his hands behind his back in an arm lock.

“Did this man pick a fight with you, Merikh?”

“I wouldn’t,” Morgan began, looking at me with terror in his eyes. “I’m no prime disciple. I’m not stupid.”

“He’s heard of your antics,” Zubin said, annoyed and letting the mask slip a little. “This is why DeLacy wants you back. We don’t get involved in their business because then they’ll want to get involved in ours. Do you understand?”

“He didn’t pick a fight with me. I’m just here to take his stuff.”

“Step a little to your right, please,” Mouse said.

I rolled my shoulders, getting the kinks out, and stepped to the right. Mouse fired immediately, the bullet coming close enough to my face that I could feel it.

It entered Morgan’s shoulder and continued on to Zubin’s chest. Both men fell back, but Zubin was the first to try and rise again.

I grabbed one of the automatic rifles from the secret room, checked it was loaded, and fired everything at the window. I checked on Zubin – he was hurt and bleeding, but getting up, anyway – before launching myself at the window again. I came at it from a bad angle and clipped the frame, sending myself into a mad spin that ended in a bush and a sickening thud.

“I’m out and coming to you,” I yelled against the pain from my newly dislocated shoulder. “I’ll need you as close to the gate as you can get.”

I was up and running into the darkness before the guard on the door fired and missed. I was halfway to the gate before he tried again, hitting the ground near my foot. Too near. Another shot and he’d have had me.

Our van smashed through the grand gates of Morgan’s estate and skidded to a halt in the gravel of his driveway. Mouse didn’t waste time waiting for me, spinning the wheels and making the van donut in the gravel until it was facing the right way. I got to the door and pulled it open a half second before she put her foot flat and made our escape.

I risked a look back, wondering how close Zubin had come. He was standing in the office watching me, unconcerned by the men he’d left dead and dying behind him.

One day. It was the only thought in my head, louder than the pain and the fear. One day, and I was going back.

Published by C.L. Walker

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

The Knight: Two Old Enemies

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

The Knight: A Thousand Year Deal

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8