Shaker of Earth (SPECTR Series 2 Book 5) Read online

  I know he’s kind of crazy, but he can’t really think we’ll see demons everywhere and the city in ruins, and decide he’s a great guy after all.

  “No. I do not believe he would.” Gray paused, ruminating. “Yuri’s cleverness almost worked. If we had returned their affection, we would have left with them last night. If we had not cared about John.”

  Shit. You think John’s in trouble?

  “Drugoy and Yuri blame him for our decision. They will try to use him against us, one way or another. Perhaps their plan was to seize him, bring him to us here, and threaten him unless we submit.”

  It made a horrible sort of sense. And the chaos—the demons—are meant to draw out John. SPECTR will come for Drugoy.

  “Yes. And Yuri and Drugoy will enjoy this chaos. They will feed well.”

  Of course they would. It was what Yuri had been doing for months on a lesser scale—summoning demons, then letting them loose so Drugoy would have the challenge of a hunt. No wonder he’d known where to find the werewolves Gray and Dru had hunted together, let alone the sirens.

  “What now?” Deacon asked, in a way that suggested Caleb had been gazing off into nothing while having his conversation with Gray.

  Caleb turned and stared in the direction of the city. The smoke still rose, even though more alarms than ever split the shrill air. He might be able to find Yuri and Drugoy just by following the noise. Though the demons Yuri summoned and forced into helpless passers-by weren’t going to stay put. The path wouldn’t be as clear as he’d like. Still, he didn’t have any better ideas.

  He needed to warn John, before anything else. Tell him to get to SPECTR-HQ and stay put.

  Grief seeped into his veins, Gray huddling close against him for comfort. “John does not want us anymore.”

  No. But right now, he needs us.

  Caleb held out his hand to Deacon. “Do you have a cell phone?”

  Deacon pulled one out of his pocket. “Right here.”

  The thought of talking to John again made Caleb’s gut shrivel. But this was too much and too important to leave to a text. Caleb punched in John’s number.

  “We’re sorry,” said an automated voice, “but all circuits are busy right now. Please hang up and try again.”

  Damn it—the chaos must have spread fast. He typed in a text and sent it, in the blind hope it might eventually be delivered.

  Y&D after you. B compromised. Stay in HQ. This is our mess to clean up. -C&G

  He tossed the phone back to Deacon. “I haven’t forgiven you. But if you want to make things right, get to SPECTR-HQ. Find Special Agent Noorzai and tell her everything you’ve told me. Got it?”

  Deacon glanced uncertainly in the direction of the chain link fence. “I used up a lot of my TK just now. Maybe if I could get a boost—”

  “No,” Caleb said flatly, Gray’s sharp denial bleeding into his own. “But you can take my motorcycle. Even if the roads are jammed, you might be able to get through on the sidewalks.”

  The fearful expression didn’t fade, but Deacon nodded. “What are you going to do?”

  “Yuri’s plan was damn near flawless,” Caleb said. He dug the keys out of the pocket of his blood-crusted jeans and tossed them to Deacon. “But now he’s made a mistake. One that’s going to cost him.”

  “What mistake?”

  Caleb’s teeth burned as they sharpened. “He didn’t kill us when he had the chance.”

  * * *

  SPECTR didn’t possess the sort of military grade equipment flaunted by most police departments, but they did have an armory with a small amount of body armor and plenty of silver-jacketed ammunition. John strapped on a flak jacket that might hold back the claws and teeth of an enraged therianthrope and loaded every available pocket with more ammo.

  Zahira did the same; as she strapped on her jacket, she said, “I’m mad at you, John.”

  “I know,” John said. He focused on checking over his Glock, instead of meeting her eyes. “You have every right to be.”

  “You used my goodwill.” Her voice was tight, words clipped. “You asked me to look up information on the Lake Baikal Vampire, and then asked for my trust. I gave it, because I thought we were friends.”

  He’d been so angry at Gray and Caleb for abusing his trust. But then he’d turned around and done the same damn thing to Zahira. “I’m sorry. I thought…I believed Yuri and Drugoy were like Caleb and Gray. Weird, but not, you know. Murderous.”

  Zahira shook her head and left. John hurried to catch up, then fell in beside her.

  “You didn’t even tell me about the second drakul,” she said.

  They emerged into the main hall to the elevators. The few field agents remaining in HQ clustered around the doors, faces grim. Some of them had exorcism kits slung over their shoulders, in the hopes that, despite all odds, they might find some possession victims who might be saved. John slowed before reaching the group; once they were on the elevator, there would be no chance for a private conversation.

  “Caleb and Gray begged me not to tell anyone,” he said in a low voice. “You know what they’ve been going through here. They’d kept Yuri and Dru even from me, because they were afraid of what SPECTR would do. If I’d gone to Barillo, they would have ended up in a cell even if Yuri and Dru managed to escape.”

  Zahira let out a long sigh. “I know.”

  “I only found out a couple of days ago myself. I didn’t even have a chance to think things through.” He paused and looked down at her. “But I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were in danger. I didn’t realize anyone was in danger. Yuri and Dru played Caleb and Gray, the same way they played Barillo and Ericsson and gods-know-who-else. And I trusted Caleb and Gray’s assessment of the situation. I didn’t think it would end like this.”

  She was silent a long moment. The elevator doors opened, and the other agents filed on. There wasn’t quite enough room, so they watched the doors close and waited for the next one. “What happened in Ericsson’s bedroom, John?” she asked in a low voice. “You went in five minutes before the rest of us.”

  He took a deep breath, tried not to flash back to that moment of horror and fear. “I saw Gray feeding on Ericsson. Ericsson was already dead, of course—you’ve seen the size of those fangs. And I…I didn’t know the whole story. I didn’t know anything, other than I’d ignored the Vigilants’ warning about drakul and human blood. And I had to make a choice.” He closed his eyes briefly. “SPECTR is more than a job to me, Zahira. My parents…they belonged to one of those religious sects you see all over the rural low country, the ones who think paranormal abilities are a sign of the devil. I became a ward of the state when I was a teen, went to the paranormal school, and then straight to the Academy. SPECTR has been my family, my career, my life.”

  The lights above the elevator counted down as the car descended. “I knew what my duty was. To take them into custody if I could. Wait until you arrived with backup. Instead, I told them to leave and never come back. That I never wanted to see them again.”

  “You hoped they’d get out of Charleston?”

  “Yes.” And because at that moment, he hadn’t wanted to see them again. Everything hurt too badly. All he’d seen was death and blood, a worst-case scenario where the people he loved most had betrayed everything he cared about.

  And now he’d give anything to have them back, to know they were safe and alive, and not devoured by Drugoy.

  “Gray is my friend,” Zahira said, “but he’s also a predator.”

  “I know that,” he snapped, annoyed.

  “But sometimes you forget.” She glanced up at him. “I’ve read the reports. When Gray first came into Caleb’s body, his reflex was to bite Caleb’s sister-in-law, Melanie Jansen.”

  Goddess, John had almost forgotten about that. “And?”

  “We know Ericsson stabbed them in the head, thanks to brain matter on the athame. Who knows what else he might have been threatening in the heat of the moment. In times of extreme stress
, the instinct to bite may trigger.”

  “If that was the case, he would have bitten Barillo,” John muttered.

  Zahira cocked her head as she glanced up at him. “Maybe he was meant to.”

  John’s lips parted, but he wasn’t certain how to respond. Had Yuri and Dru hoped the constant provocation from Barillo would push Gray over the edge?

  And then what? If Gray had drained the SPECTR District Chief, all hell would have broken loose. Would Yuri and Dru have turned up offering to help? Tried to convince Gray and Caleb to flee with them? Likely Caleb at least would have thought they had no other choice but to run.

  A man could go mad, trying to figure out what Yuri might or might not have planned.

  If only he could talk to Caleb and Gray. But he’d been the one to send them away, tell them he never wanted to see them again.

  Assuming Drugoy hadn’t…

  No. He wouldn’t consider that, not without proof.

  A part of John wanted to believe he’d know on some deep level if they’d died. He still had some of Gray’s etheric energy from the last time they’d made love. It would boost his exorcist abilities, but couldn’t it also provide some subtle connection between them? Some bond that would ring through him like the alarm of a broken spirit ward if it was severed?

  There was no way to know. Either it was true, and Gray and Caleb were still alive, or it was nothing but wishful speculation on his part.

  The elevator door pinged open. As they stepped on, Karl jogged up behind them. “Hold it for me!”

  “You’re coming with us?” John asked in surprise. Karl wasn’t a field agent, unless he was needed to sit in on witness questioning. He normally stayed at HQ when it came time for the bullets to fly.

  But he had followed Kaniyar when she turned against Forsyth. He’d been there on Fort Sumter that night, gun in hand.

  “Barillo wants everyone who can hold a weapon in the streets,” Karl said, watching as the floor numbers ticked past. “My family’s out there somewhere. Every NHE I stop gives them a better chance of surviving this.”

  “Inshallah, they’ll be all right,” Zahira said. John put a hand to Karl’s shoulder.

  The doors opened and they piled out into the garage. A line of large SUVs stood waiting, along with a couple of the armored transports used when a possessed person refused to cooperate. Barillo stood beside the van in the front, megaphone in hand.

  “Is that everyone?” he asked, sweeping an eye over them. “All right. I’ll be coordinating from the van. Your mission is simple: take down any NHE you see. Organize yourselves into teams with that goal in mind.” He paused. “However, that’s just treating the symptoms. We can’t make the city safe again until the drakul are removed. Our primary goal, overriding all other considerations, is to end them.”

  Them.

  A murmur ran through the crowd. Barillo scowled. “Yes, that includes Jansen. We have reason to believe he’s working with the other drakul. If you spot him, your orders are to shoot on sight.”

  * * *

  Caleb came to a dismayed halt when he set foot onto East Bay Street. Cars sat bumper to bumper, completely unmoving, while concerned drivers stuck their heads out the windows or held up their phones, as though that might help them get through the jammed cell network. There were at least two accidents in sight, and he glimpsed distant flashes of red light off some of the buildings, no doubt cast by firetrucks or ambulances.

  Damn it. All these people are sitting ducks for demons.

  “We could find the demons and eat them,” Gray offered helpfully.

  Caleb hesitated. They’d recovered enough energy to heal their earlier injures, but they were still running low. For damn sure they needed to feed more if they were to have any hope of stopping Drugoy and Yuri.

  Of course, given Yuri could summon NHEs straight from the etheric plane for Drugoy to absorb, it might not matter how many demons they ate. They’d never be on the same level.

  We don’t have time, he decided reluctantly. SPECTR can take care of werewolves and ghouls. But we’re the only ones who have a chance in hell of taking down Yuri.

  “We must feed.”

  I know. We’ll eat any demons we come across, I promise. But these folks aren’t in immediate danger. We’ve got to move on.

  Still, he could at least try to warn them. “Get out of your cars!” he yelled. “Take cover in the buildings. There are demons on the loose!”

  The locks clicked on the sedan nearest to him. Another driver aimed his phone in Caleb’s direction, and a third flipped him off.

  “Yeah, well fuck you, too,” Caleb muttered. He wove between the cars to the other side of the street, then paused. They needed to find Yuri and Dru. But how?

  “It has been too long for his scent to remain.”

  Well, we can’t just wander aimlessly and hope we run into him. If Yuri and Dru realized they were loose, they might come back to put Caleb and Gray in their place again.

  Or they might not. Maybe they’d prefer it if Gray got a good, long look at a city swarming with demons.

  Gray’s attention sharpened, drawn by the flashing lights. “We may be able to follow their path of destruction.”

  Caleb took a step back and scanned what he could see of the skyline. There was a reason Charleston’s nickname was the Holy City—you were never far from a church.

  Agreed. And for that, we need a bird’s eye view.

  * * *

  John’s extremities went cold. He wasn’t sure if ordinary SPECTR agents could kill a drakul, but they could incapacitate one for a short time. At least, Sean had done so when he’d shot Caleb through the head.

  If Caleb and Gray fell into Barillo’s hands now, everything Caleb had feared would come true. At best, he’d be locked away behind doors so thick even Gray couldn’t tear through them. At worst, with time and effort, someone would figure out how to kill a drakul.

  Sekhmet, Lady of the Bloodbath, preserve them.

  “What the hell?” Karl demanded.

  Zahira’s eyes flashed fire. “Why is he doing this?”

  “Because he’s afraid,” John said in a low voice. “And I don’t mean just of Gray. You both saw what was on Ericsson’s phone. Barillo’s worried his boss, or even the director, will find out he was played. If he can claim Caleb was working with Yuri, that the texts were part of some elaborate set up...”

  “Would anyone buy that?” Karl asked doubtfully.

  “Hell if I know.” John shook his head. “But it’ll be a lot easier to cast doubt on the issue if Caleb and Gray aren’t around to contradict his version of events.”

  The other agents started making for the vehicles. One woman shoved her way back through the press, however, heading for them. Zahira frowned. “Who’s that?”

  “Julie Wells. An exorcist, though I haven’t had the chance to work with her. She came in after Fort Sumter went down,” John said.

  When she reached them, Wells glanced at Karl and Zahira, then said in a low voice, “Is this legit, Starkweather?”

  He hesitated…but it wasn’t as though anyone reporting his opinion back to Barillo would change things. “No. Caleb and Gray were—are,” he corrected quickly, “trying to stop the other drakul.”

  Wells gave Karl a more pointed look. “John is telling the truth as he knows it,” Karl said. “And for the record, I’m in agreement with him.”

  “Well shit.” She licked her lips nervously. “Listen, I was one of the agents assigned to the wereboar case. It was bad news, but Jansen swanned in, grabbed the file, and took the thing out on his own. I saw the scene after—there was a security cam that got some grainy footage. If we’d gone in there, I don’t know that we could have saved the victim. I’m damn sure one of us would have ended up in the hospital, if not the ground. Not unless we had a shit-ton more backup than was available.”

  Could it be they had an ally? “What about Ericsson?” John asked bluntly, because he had to know.

  Her looked tu
rned grave, but she gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “Word is the guy was a rapist scumbag. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have stood trial, but I’m not going to pretend to be broken up about what happened, either.”

  “So what now?” Zahira asked.

  Wells nodded at one of the SUVs. “We’ve got room for three more. I’m all for stopping the drakul causing this, but I’m not gunning Jansen down without a lot more proof than we’ve been given.”

  The relief that washed through John surprised him with its intensity. At least not everyone was blindly following Barillo’s orders. He clasped Wells’s arm and nodded. “Thanks. We’ll come with you. I don’t know if we can find Caleb and Gray before Barillo does, but we can at least try.”

  “If nothing else, there will be plenty of NHEs to shoot while we look,” she said grimly. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 4

  Gray perches atop the steeple and peers out over the city below. His vision is much sharper than that of any mortal, but even he cannot hope to spot Drugoy at a distance amidst the narrow streets.

  But Yuri and Drugoy have made no attempt to cover their tracks. True, the demons Yuri summons will not stay near him, but judging by the concentrations of flashing lights and alarms, they have not spread far. Either because of Yuri’s ability to control them, as the mortal exorcist Brimm once did, or because the scent of blood and the screams of mortals has driven them into a feeding frenzy.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Caleb asks.

  There are seldom so many demons in such a small area at once. Those who live in packs—sirens, werewolves, ghouls, others—will act together in a hunt. But this is not a pack. This is simply blood and madness.

  The memory of feeding on Ericsson rises unbidden, and he flinches back. Blood and madness, and he is as guilty of it as any of the creatures in the streets below.

  “Hey. No.” Caleb is a warm presence in the shared space of their mind. “I mean, we fucked up. We crossed the line. But we aren’t just murdering people in the street.”