Page 69 of A Shade Too Far
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Laurent didn’t respondto my texts. I let him know that I’d wait for an hour at a café across from the bookstore, then I was leaving. My tea and sandwich sat untouched, but my phone got a workout as I checked every few minutes to make sure I was receiving a signal.
He never showed.
I assured myself that this was a good thing. It meant that he’d regained his shifting abilities and couldn’t travel via the Kefitzat Haderech, and not that he’d rather spend four hours “in a cage” on a plane than see me.
I waited another fifteen minutes, just in case. Also, I was kind of nervous of my reception in the KH. Best case, Pyotr would glare balefully. Worst case… I shot back my cold tea and threw down a tip.
I was walking around the neighborhood, willing the sun to thaw me out, when Ryann called, asking whether I’d reconsidered my stance on having Elizabeta ward my place up. Despite the fact it would alleviate Eli’s fears, I once more declined the offer. Pissing off Zev would be bad enough; I certainly wasn’t going to trust another Lonestar when I barely trusted Ryann. She pressed her case, unhappy about putting my family’s well-being in the vamp’s hands. I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy over the prospect, but the lesser of two evils at this point.
I stood firm on my decision.
The call over, I stepped into the shadows, a litany of apologies at the ready, but Pyotr was nowhere to be found. Instead, an expressionless golem stood in the center of the gloomy cave between me and the pile of socks. While they weren’t necessary for travel, it was still obligatory to take one.
“Where’s Pyotr?” I said, my stomachache flaring up. Was there some kind of shadowland gulag that he’d been banished to after my mishap?
If something had happened to that sweet hapless gargoyle, I’d lose my shit.
“Your privileges have been temporarily suspended,” the freakishly tall golem intoned in a deep voice. Its head almost brushed the top of the cave.
“Say what?”
“Your privileges have been temporarily suspended due to you bringing an Ohrist into the Kefitzat Haderech,” it repeated. Roughly fashioned, with features barely a step up from a stick figure’s and not a scrap of clothing on, it had zero personality, giving me a new appreciation for Emmett.
“Laurent was Banim Shovavim.” I balled my hands into fists. “He’d have been killed otherwise.”
“He became Banim Shovavim and was allowed to live.” The golem spoke in a mechanical voice, as if reciting a regulation from memory. “However, when you brought him here, he was an Ohrist, and thus you must suffer the consequences.”
It stared at me with cold, button-like eyes, giving the sense that I should be grateful this punishment was as bad as it got.
“I understand. I’m guessing the suspension starts once I return home?” I went for a sock, but the golem blocked me.
Immovable, expressionless, and intent on ejecting me.
I kicked a rock against the wall. Laurent had gone AWOL, and we still didn’t have the name of the Banim Shovavim who’d placed the death curse on Tatiana. I was hanging on by my fingernails and if this golem stopped me from getting home, I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.
It shifted its weight as if in anticipation of me losing it.
I took a deep breath and tamped down my anger, instead snapping my fingers twice. “I want to speak to your manager. Sign. Whatever.”
“You are not welcome here. Leave.”
I sat down on the uneven ground. “Make me.”
The golem bent down and picked me up under the armpits, giving me access to its forehead—and the word “emet” for truth carved into it.
While I didn’t know Hebrew, the language was read from right to left, so I jabbed my fingernails into the first letter to scratch it out. The nail on my index finger broke, but I didn’t leave a mark because its forehead, like the rest of the golem, had been fired to a hard consistency.
A door appeared in the rocks with the image of the skeleton face carved into it. Oh, hell no.
I thrashed in the golem’s hold, but my struggles failed to make its arms tremble, never mind slow it down.
Delilah grabbed a large rock and bashed the golem across the back of its head.
No reaction. As the good little minion programmed to finish a task no matter what, it continued to the door.
Delilah amped up her attack, hitting him again and again.
