Kira - 77

Nina burst Kira’s shock-bubble with rough hands and pinching nails. Dragging her to her feet. Their surroundings were lit up like a sports stadium at night. All the electricity in the world seemed to be right here, in this place, making the whole damn thing glow. The quadrangle was surrounded on three sides by imposing warehouses.

‘Help me here, Kira. Just a little.’ Nina’s words were muffled. Kira’s ears rang at rock-concert levels. ‘You’re bloody heavy.’

Undoubtedly true, considering she was three quarters Telteriun now, but Kira’s legs wouldn’t follow any orders. Her bleeding knees stayed bent.

‘Are you hurt?’ Nina’s hands wandered up and down Kira’s ribs, brushing the metal over her breasts. ‘Are you injured?’

Injured? She was bleeding from enough cuts and grazes to start her own vampire ready-meal outlet. A walking gravel rash. The worst of it down the side of her right leg. In her gut something burned like balls of acid. Nothing was broken. Bonus. And her clothes were still on. A positive. But who gave a shit anyway? Perry had just blown apart in front of her.

‘Where is he?’ Kira twisted, trying to find a way out of Nina’s pincer grip. ‘Where is Perry?’

‘Gone. He and Mr Blaine both. But they gave us this chance, we cannot waste it. Kira, we have to move. Right now.’

The ear-buzzing edged down a notch. And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out this was a bad place for a chat. Anzu stood off to the right, every feather on his body bristling, inflating him to double the size he actually was, wings stretched wide. Through the up and down sweep, Kira caught a glimpse of the flaming vehicle at the gate. A giant metallic bonfire now. She hoped like hell Eron’s body hadn’t been in that one. It would be the cherry on a shit cake if she’d just managed to get him cremated. At last, her knees locked into place and she was up, kind of. A human Leaning Tower of Pisa that used Nina as a scaffold.

‘Where did they go?’ Kira bounced off Nina’s side as the woman navigated them both through the chaos. ‘What just happened to Perry?’

Even through her cottonwool ears, Kira could make out the shouting – lots of shouting from a bunch of people streaming out of the windowless building on the west side of the quadrangle. Assholes with guns. And where there were assholes, there were grimalkin.

‘That Lucentshield was about to fry your pretty brains, my dear.’ Nina pulled Kira down in a crouch, gunfire rat-tat-tatting around them. ‘Your friend made a choice. He saved your life.’

Kira’s knees shifted back to screw-you mode, and she stumbled. Nina didn’t miss a stride, hauling her up and keeping on, keeping on. Anzu bellowed, and his cry tore a hole in the atmosphere. Kira had always hated this place, and right now it was hell itself.

‘Is Perry still alive?’ Kira was shouting, her throat told her so, but her ears didn’t compute. ‘I mean . . . alive as in . . .’

Ghosting it up. Hanging out in spook central? She’d take undead over cadaver, any day. Jesus. Please don’t let that have been the end. Kira clung to Nina’s arm, as much to stay on her feet as to have something to grip hold of. The zings coming from the various grazes on her body were packing quite the punch.

‘Just keep moving, Kira.’

They reached a squat grey building that sat just forward of a larger green steel warehouse. The warehouse had lighting fit for the Yankee Stadium, but the smaller building, not so much. Nina shoved Kira into a shadowed area up against a wide venting grid that ran the length of one of the walls. The whole unit vibrated and rumbled. The grates said a trembling hello to the grazes on Kira’s back. With a hiss and a curse, she sat forward. They had taken refuge beside a transformer. How did she know that? Because she’d fucked an electrician several times. In a spot just like this, on the other side of the Facility, and he’d told her what it was as she’d gagged on his cock. Man, those days. Shit, she missed them. Doing pointless, wonderful things, like forgetting who she’d just banged before her pants were even back on. Never stopping too long.

Stopping was bad.

Reality sniffed you out like a beagle tracking cocaine. Clogged up your brainsack with shitty, shitty memories. Car. Tree. Dead dad.

Water fountain. Pretty park. Dead alien.

Now, Perry. He was the straw and she was all camel.

Kira stretched out her shredded leg, biting down on her lip. And where the hell was the slimy reptile when you needed him? ‘Is Bradley with you?’

Nina kept up watch at the edge of the transformer but shook her head. ‘No. I haven’t seen him since we came through the gate.’

Picking flecks of gravel from a pulpy graze along her calf, Kira said, ‘Great. So, what’s the plan, fearless leader? ’Cause this sucks so far.’

Nina turned away from her spying efforts. ‘Why did you throw yourself off Anzu? You are going to have to listen to me if we are getting through this.’

‘I did not throw myself.’

‘Well you sure as hell didn’t hang on.’

‘Did you not feel that shit back there? I like my brain inside my skull, thanks very much.’ Just the memory of it caused her head to ache.

Nina sat back on her heels. Her hair was tangled, she had a smudge of dirt on her chin, and her crocheted top was more ripped threads than intricate needlework. Kira had time to take all this in because Nina just stared at her. Anzu was screeching blue murder, but Nina just kept staring. Until, finally: ‘You felt it.’

Not a question, so Kira said nothing. Nina shuffled forward on her knees and took Kira’s hands in her own. Her mouth opened, first a little, then a whole lot, a gasp moving between parted lips. Her eyelids lowered, covering her chocolate irises almost entirely.

‘Not a great time for a power nap,’ Kira said. Chances of not being found behind this pathetic barrier had to be next to nil.

Nina laid her fingers against Kira’s cheek. ‘I have not felt less like sleeping in two thousand years. We are truly going to do this.’

‘Jesus, you went into this thinking we weren’t?’

Nina’s lips jerked. Maybe a smile. Maybe she was having a fit. ‘It was hard to be sure. I know things have happened to you . . .’ Her gaze flitted down to Kira’s belly, then ricocheted back to her face. ‘But witches are prone to exaggeration.’ She tugged at the collar of the pyjama top Kira wore. The fox brooch had held on valiantly, though the same couldn’t be said for chunks of the cotton material. ‘But now I’m seeing things with my own eyes. And I believe I may once again dance with the gods.’

A burst of gunfire tore up the gravel not more than a few metres from where they crouched. Nina pressed Kira to the ground, covering her body with her own. Kira kissed the dirt. Actually kissed it, spitting and struggling to lift her head.

‘Keep down.’

‘I’m three-quarters metal, with a fucking holy stone in my gut and a trigger-happy goddess up my ass.’ Kira coughed, and dust stung her eyes. ‘I should be the one on top.’

She elbowed Nina, who eased up enough that Kira could raise her head. And catch sight of a figure by the green steel warehouse. A figure that seemed oblivious to the chaos on the other side of the quad.

Watching them instead.

‘Oh shit,’ Kira and Nina whispered in near-perfect unison.

With the blaze of lights in the quadrangle, there was no mistaking Cym.Just staring at them. No way he couldn’t have spotted them. Nothing interrupted his line of sight. But the dude didn’t start shouting, or running, or aiming any bullets their way. Didn’t even raise his weapon. Just stood there while the rest of the quadrangle dealt with the rampaging Anzu. Maybe he didn’t know what the hell to do with a weapon. The guy was a medic, right? Kira’d never had much to do with Cym, but Blake had. Two weirdos working side by side in their little laboratory, building monsters. Maybe Cym the weirdo was blind as a bat. Too much squinting at tiny screens.

‘What is he waiting for?’ Nina hissed.

Fuck, maybe Leona’s potion had made them invisible. Kira did her best deer-in-headlights impression. The stand-off was creeping her out. Why the fuck wasn’t the guy doing anything? He had Eron’s murderer in his sights. Surely he gave a shit? If she were Cym, she’d be tearing her guts out and wearing her intestines as accessories. Hell, if this saving-the-world shit wasn’t happening, she would hand him the knife herself and bid them all Happy Kira Death Day.

‘He sees us,’ Nina whispered. ‘He has to see us.’ The weirdness of the situation seemed to have thrown her off too. They should be running, or Shifting, or something. Anything.

A fresh swell of voices rose through the quad, and Anzu’s hoarse cries grew more frantic. And more distant. Kira would bet the zero dollars she had on her that Anzu was sky bound, and with any luck, Bradley was buried somewhere in the feathers. In one piece. Damn it, she missed that fucking lizard. Nina grabbed her hand, attempting to do god-knows what, but Kira resisted. Not ready to take eyes off Cym. The Syranian balled up his fists, and Kira held her breath. Fuck. He was going to call them out.

Cym shook his head and turned, breaking into a jog that took him and his extraterrestrial ass out of sight around the far side of the warehouse. But his voice rang out loud and clear.

‘Follow after it,’ Cym bellowed. ‘Bring that creature down.’

Nothing about the two chicks hiding behind the transformer.

Kira expelled a stale breath. ‘What the fuck just happened?’

‘Opportunity,’ Nina said. ‘Kira, this is it. We are going to Shift inside. And I have an idea . . . it should work –’

‘Should? Oh god –’

‘Listen to me.’ Nina grabbed her shirt collar and hauled her in close. ‘I want you to focus on Azrael when I begin the Shift. I will concentrate on the Messenger, but I want you to go to Azrael –’

‘Az? How am I supposed to –’

Nina tapped her finger against Kira’s temple. ‘You can find him. There is a connection between you. I’ve seen it. You’ve felt it. I know you have, it’s in the way you look at him. And this place, it’s a tinderbox of power, Kira. Set it on fire. Use your power. I believe you can control your own Shift.’

‘Hell of a time to mention a new superpower.’

Nina’s breath was warm against Kira’s lips, and those rich eyes of brown sparkled. ‘You must feel the strength of this place. Feed on it. Take control. I said once you were a handmaiden just like me, but I was wrong. I don’t think you are like me. I don’t think you are like anyone else who exists. You are trapped in your own skin, and yet bursting out of it. So desperately human, and utterly divine. Take hold of both. Your pain fuels you. Make it your servant here, and let the Maiden guide you. Go. Find your metal angel, and we will tear this house down.’

If Nina had been practising her pep talks, this was the gold-medal performance. It gave Kira the proper feels. Actual goosebumps and all. Bra-fucking-vo. Kira wrapped her hands around Nina’s wrists, finding a firm hold. A hum filled her body, and it had nothing to do with the transformer. This was just like the moment she’d swallowed the stone, a rock-a-bye-baby melody soothing her. Eron had said once the mea stone enabled him to carry out the will of his god. Well, if the Maiden was using the stone right now, She seemed to be telling Kira to chill the fuck out. Stay calm.

If you’re going down, go down swinging, right? Kira had been going down a long damn time. Sinking under the weight of just being. Never out from behind that steering wheel. Always careening towards that tree.

Time for the big bang. But she was getting Az and Blake out of here first.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the gunfire, the bright lights, the aches and hollows of her own body.

‘Let’s do this.’