Page 46 of Leviathan's Song
I grabbed what I needed of my belongings, checked the men again for movement, pushed more energy into my little constructs, and unlocked the door. Time to get out.
The cold night air felt damp on my skin as my breaths shuddered out of me. I’d no sooner flipped my keys in the lock, wasps hovering at my shoulders, than I flinched at the sound of a horse moving at a fast canter. Hoofbeats rang out loudly, echoing and reverberating across the concrete and glass business fronts. I could feel Grim’s power growing and speeding toward me at an alarming rate.
Oppressive darkness materialized for one instant under a streetlamp at the end of the block, flashing through the circle of light in the blink of an eye. His magic felt like an avalanche, a crushing python, heaving and constricting with every breath. He was a yawning abyss.
And he truly was on horseback... if you could call it that.
He rode a wraith—was himself a wraith—the cloak of shadow wrapping around him and whipping behind him as he drew near. Grim rode straight at me, looking for all the world as if he would trample me under the hooves of his steed. His cloak flared wide, and the horse disappeared—there one second and gone the next—depositing him neatly on his feet a dozen paces in front of me. He continued walking toward me without breaking his gait, twirling what appeared to be a war hammer made of shadow in one hand before tucking it...somewhere... and then it was gone.
While I wasn’t afraid of Grim specifically, his magic was overwhelming and suffocating in its intensity, making my already frayed nerves stretch wildly. I wrestled through my racing thoughts and grabbed ahold of the most pressing one. “Did I kill them?” I choked out. Was that why he was here?
“Unfortunately not,” muttered a voice over my shoulder. I shrieked and spun to find Jordan staring at the two men with a disdainful expression, before turning a more baffled expression on me.
“What iswrongwith you morons?” Levi’s magic was a hint of salt air and splashing waves under the onslaught that was Grim as he practically flew up the block.
I was still having a hard time deciding who required more of my attention: Grim and his writhing cloak of shadows or the two men lying on the pavement in front of my store. I felt Levi’s strong arms close around my shoulders as he tucked my head against his neck, his chest heaving. His voice vibrated against the side of my face. “I asked you tohelpher, not scare the daylights out of her. She’s already hyperventilating.”
Am I?It was hard to tell with the ringing in my ears.
Levi pulled my head back enough to search my face. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Okay. Try to calm down and tell me what happened. We’re here now. You’re safe.”
“Doesn’t look like she needed us in the first place,” Jordan grumbled, leaning over the man closest to us. He bent at the waist and sniffed, crouching lower as he went and taking several short, shallow inhales before blowing a large puff of air out his nostrils like it offended him. “Heavy sedatives.”
He flicked me a sideways glance before dropping to his knees and rooting through a small duffel bag lying on the pavement that I hadn’t even noticed. “Long-stemmed lighters, tape, hunting knives, zip ties, old rags...” He stood and frowned at the men, sparing a long glance at a gasoline can lying on its side a few feet away. “It’s quaint how much gear a normal person needs to commit arson and kidnapping.”
Levi’s breath came out in a wheeze, and he clutched me a little tighter. “Elara? What happened, honey?”
“I panicked.” My voice sounded robotic to my own ears. I felt him nod against the top of my head. His jaw moved slightly like he was mouthing something at Grim. “I felt them coming, and when I saw them peeking in the windows, I reacted.” I turned just enough to be able to watch Grim’s response, but he was entirely impassive, his face giving nothing away.
“I’ve seen enough,” Jordan fairly growled, stooping to grab the man closest to him by the upper arm and flipping him into a fireman’s carry. “Totally lame. I was promised some fun tonight.”
“Shut up, Jordan. I said no such thing. I told you Elara needed help.” Levi sounded more tired than angry as he held me against his chest.
“I thought it would be more fun.” His petulance struck me as hysterically funny in the moment, though I was still too out of it to react.
“I spend all my time trying not to scare people and the one chance I get to do it on purpose—ruined. What’s the point of having this awesome party trick if I never get to use it?” He turned to face us with a sarcastic smirk, his irises turning blood red before glowing like hot embers.
“You idiot,” Levi tried to push Jordan’s face away, but Jordan dodged under him, laughing. “She’s probably already going into shock,” Levi said. “Keep your nightmare fuel to yourself.”
Grim gave a quiet sigh, which I wouldn’t have noticed except that I was so focused on him—the intensity of his magic hadn’t abated at all. He stooped to grab the second man by the front of his shirt and then nonchalantly wrapped Jordan in a gentle headlock, causing him to tip unsteadily with his shouldered burden and laugh even harder.
“I’ve seen these men,” Grim said quietly to no one in particular. “I’ll take care of it.” He turned and walked off into the night with a protesting vampire under one arm and a dangling man clutched by the front of his shirt in another, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Maybe it was. Jordan yelled for Levi to throw him the duffle, which he did, and then they were gone.
“Is Jordan going to eat them?” I finally asked into the silence.
“I don’t think Jordan’s the eating-people type,” Levi responded. “Besides, I think your drugs would turn him off it anyhow.”
“That’s good.”
“Mmm.”
* * *
Levi had walkedme to the Gate and waited with me while I called Sidney. He’d offered to stay the night with me, but in my shaken state I knew I’d be too tempted to want to push his boundaries in my desire to be comforted. Sidney had seemed like a safer guard for the night.
