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He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair. “I’m dead?”
I nodded.
“This is a vision?”
I nodded again, head still against his shirt.
“I guess it’s understandable that you’re upset.”
I stepped back and punched him in the chest. “Of course I’m upset! You’re dead, dammit! Dead!”
He rubbed where I hit him. “You hit harder in visions. That actually stung a little.”
I shook my head. “You’re still a pain in my ass.”
“I have stuff to show you.” He raised his hand, and long, deep gouges appeared, just as on his real body. “Well, fuck me.”
“We’re running out of time.” My words sounded desperate and unhappy.
“Let me do this one last thing for you.”
I didn’t want our final moments together to be reliving his death, but we had priorities that were bigger—well, smaller—and hopefully still alive. I held my hands out to him. “Show me.”
He slid his hands under mine, palms touching. “Remember it’s just a memory, okay? I’ve already passed, and I don’t hurt anymore. Remember I’m here with you.”
The tears welled up in my eyes, hot and heaving. “I’ll try.”
He brushed them away with his thumbs and kissed the middle of my forehead. “I’m so sorry, Zoë.” He took my hands again, and opened the doorway.
I fell right in.
***
It occurred to me, as I stood and wiped the snow and dirt off my pants, that I had never double jumped a vision before. Then again, before now I’d never interacted within a vision either. Was it naga magick, or had I gained a new level of my own power? Could I sound anymore like a nerd? Mysteries to unravel later.
“You don’t have to be so damn stubborn, you know?” Mike’s voice broke through the quiet.
I hid around a trunk and watched as they passed me.
“She’s hurting, too.”
“Like hell,” Daniel replied. “She’s got someone else, and I’m not hearing any complaints. Hey!” He rubbed the back of his head where his partner had smacked him. “What was that for?”
“For acting like a petulant teenage boy, that’s what.” Mike shook his head. “Sometimes you’re a real idiot. You love her, don’t you?”
“If it was just about being in love with her.... Man, I wish it was that easy.” He put an arm out. “Do you hear that?”
At first, I thought they’d heard me, but as we listened in silence, beneath the wind-blown tinkling of dead leaves came an unmistakable slithering sound.
“There!” Mike whispered.
The guys split up and ducked behind separate trees, weapons at the ready.
From the mouth of the cave came three nagas. Two stood about six feet tall, their thick bodies colored a slight green tinge and decorated with scales along their stomachs and the curves of their necks and shoulders. They carried AR15s like they meant to use them. The third guy stood a head taller than his cohorts, but instead of legs, he had a long tail curving behind him. His head was hooded, like a cobra, and the muscles of his arms flexed taut, probably from the pair of thin knives held tight in his hands.
“Gentlemen,” the half-naga hissed. “Let’s be honest. I know you’re out there, and you’ve clearly seen me and my men. Let’s not play at hiding.”
“You’re pretty well armed there, Cochise!” Mike yelled out. “Doesn’t seem too wise for us to just volunteer to be target practice. How about you and your boys lay down your weapons? Then we’ll have a talk about those babies you’ve got in the cave.”
The half-naga’s tail flicked out from behind him in obvious irritation. He motioned at his companions, and they moved silently in separate arcs toward the cops. “There are no babies here.”
“Oh, so you moved them?” Mike motioned to Daniel, who stole a glance from each side of his hiding spot and nodded. They knew the nagas were moving.
Half-naga frowned. “This will only end well if you walk away.”
Mike pointed at himself, and Daniel nodded again. Then he stepped out, gun aimed at the bad guy, with Daniel covering his back. “I think we all know that’s not going to happen.”
Daniel moved around his tree, gun sweeping the perimeter as he walked. He stopped right behind me. “Zoë.”
I held my breath for a second. Can he see me?
“Zoë, I wish I could apologize for my bullshit. If something goes wrong, I hope you’re able to hop into this vision and hear this. I love you. I have loved you since the moment I met you. I will love you into eternity. By the gods, I hope you find this memory. Love you. Be happy.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the tree, tears streaming down my face. “Godammit, Daniel, if you knew you were going to die, why in the hell didn’t you run?”
The slithering drew closer, and Daniel pressed his body through me and along the tree trunk. I lifted my head, and our faces lingered only a breath away as he closed his eyes, mouthed a ten count, re-palmed his gun, and took two sharp breaths.
One of the rifle-toting naga appeared on the far side of where we stood, rifle shouldered, muzzle trained on Mike.
“Sully!” Daniel yelled.
Mike ducked and rolled as Daniel fired two shots, popping the naga in the chest.
The naga staggered and fell, weapon slipping from his grasp.
“Parsons, on your right!”
Daniel stepped to his right, and his partner took down the other naga—pop, pop, pop—two to the chest, one to the forehead.
The body flew backward with the impact, eyes wide, and fell to the ground.
Daniel stepped toward his partner, eyes and weapon focused on the remaining naga.
“So,” Mike yelled out, “about those babies.”
A great, forked tongue flicked from between the half-naga’s fangs. He did that bone-cracking wrestler thing with his neck and shoulders, and he grew. The last of his human features disappeared beneath the emerging snake head. The hood curved up and around, widening the width of his shoulders, and his eyes grew to teacup saucers that glittered gold around the slitted pupil. He was easily eight feet tall now, towering over the cops with his arms outstretched, metal edges glistening in the sun.
“You should cower before me, humans,” he bellowed. “I am Adhiraj, King of Serpents, Great Naga of this country, and I take no prisoners.”
The guys shared a look.
Mike shrugged. “Except for babies.”
“And,” Daniel added, “are you the Great Naga for this whole country?” He waved his hand in a circle pointed at the ground. “Or just the Maryland/Virginia part? Do you naga over the Midwest, too?”
Adhiraj had the courtesy to look offended. “This isn’t a game.”
Daniel nodded. “Oh, we’re aware. Hand over the kids, and we’ll be on our way.”
“If I do not?”
Mike shrugged. “Then you’ll follow your boys. Your choice.”
The naga raised his head and scented the air with his tongue. “You’re all alone, just the two of you. The odds aren’t in your favor, not without your little witch.” He ran his knives’ edges together.
“Oh, don’t you worry about her” Daniel said. “She’ll find this place sooner than you think.” Snow started to fall out of nowhere. “See that? It’s probably a sign from the gods. Maybe she’s on her way now, but until then....” Daniel looked at Mike. “Guess we’ll just have to take our chances.”
They fired their weapons.
Adhiraj was fast. His hands spun the blades at such a speed that they blurred before my eyes. Out of ten shots, only one bullet got through, and it drew a long line on his left shoulder. The naga howled, the opposing hand pressing against the puckered wound, which didn’t automatically heal.
Heath didn’t heal either. Are they the only were-creatures who don’t have accelerated healing? I tucked away that tidbit of knowledge for later.
Adhiraj slid forward and flicked his tail. The thickly-muscled appendage cut through the vegetation like water and knocked the guys off their feet.
They scrambled to get upright.
“Let me help you with that.” Adhiraj closed the space between them, sank his blades into their ribs, and lifted them off the ground.
I covered my mouth with one hand. Why didn’t they wear vests? Is Simon strong enough to shove blades through Kevlar? Gods above, I can’t watch anymore.
The Great Naga raised them a good foot off the ground. “The odds,” he repeated, “are not in your favor.”
Daniel swung his arm up and fired twice into the naga’s face. One bullet tore through his hood, while the other blasted a hole through his cheek.
Adhiraj screamed and dropped the knives—
Remember where they landed, Zoë. You’re going to need them!
—and the men to the ground. He backed up, his fingers tentatively touching the edges of the damage, then roared and charged them.
Mike got three more shots off, and they struck the thick of the naga’s body.
Adhiraj didn’t seem to notice. Rage was a great numbing agent, and he possessed it in spades. He lashed out with his tail again, but instead of sweeping them off their feet, he used the length to separate the cops and shove Mike against a tree trunk.
The detective’s head bounced hard against the bark, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He hung limp between tail and tree, his gun falling out of his hand and into the leaves.
Adhiraj grabbed the front of Daniel’s jacket and hoisted him back in the air. Daniel kicked at him, but the naga just shook him. Hard. Then he dropped Mike, who fell into a messy pile at the foot of the tree, and coiled Daniel in the length of his tail.
“Babies,” Daniel panted, struggling against the bands of muscle.
The naga reached down and grabbed one of his knives. “Bad priorities, stupid human.”
He sliced at Daniel, but the detective kept his hands in front of his face, and thin red lines appeared on his skin.
I closed my eyes, and the scene stopped around me. Even the rivulets of blood pouring from his hands had paused. “I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry, goddammit!” I knew how this all ended, and I would save my grief and my tears for later—when those babies were saved, when my sister was out of the hospital, when I could hide in my home and let it out. Until then, it was time for cold and calculated.
Suck it up, already. “By the gods, something good had better come from me being here. If this is for nothing, if we lose those kids....” Had my faith stretched so thinly that I was threatening gods?
I walked over to their frozen position and touched the edge of Daniel’s jacket. “I love you, you jack ass. How am I supposed to do this without you? And you!” I poked the naga in the chest.
Adhiraj didn’t budge, meaning naga vision magick didn’t extend to human memories.
I poked the bastard again, square in the chest, and punched him in the abdomen. Petty? Sure, but this wasn’t a memory that I could manipulate with lasting success, so what did it matter?
I stepped away and waved a hand at the two of them. “Go on, already. Let’s get this mad tragedy over.”
The naga pulled Daniel in and sank his fangs into the curve of his neck. Daniel screamed, but Adhiraj held him as he gnawed away at the deep holes he’d punctured, causing the skin to rip away in a connecting line. The screaming stretched on forever, every second jabbing at my heart with tiny daggers.
Then it was over.
The naga extracted his fangs from Daniel, unraveled his tail and let the body hit the ground, right where I’d found him.
Adhiraj spat on him, blood and venom. “You should’ve walked away, stupid human.”
The edges of the vision didn’t unravel; they exploded in a bright white light.
