The Last Raven: An Urban Fantasy Noir (Riftborn Book 1), page 17
“Little help,” I called to Maria and Casimir.
Maria dropped through the hole, changing into a chestnut Arabian horse mid-leap. She landed, spun, and kicked out at the wall, putting both hooves through it like it was paper.
Another wave of power as the entire roof collapsed, and Casimir, who had turned into a rhino, dropped through it. Eidolons had to use a lot of energy to turn into an animal; it was why they mostly chose light or small animals. A horse was about as big as I’d ever seen either of them become. Turning into a white rhino that weighed well over four times as much as a horse was going to have a serious impact on just how long Casimir could stick around and help.
Casimir walked through the wall. They didn’t even bother to build up a head of steam; they just strolled through it like it wasn’t there. I spotted Maria turn into a bird and fly out of the now-decimated roof as I scrambled out of the hut, trying to put some distance between me and the demolition zone.
I was about ten feet away when the power slammed into me from all sides, forcing me to my knees, my vision going dark. I opened my mouth to scream in pain, but only smoke came out. Dark grey smoke twirled around me as the sounds of the shadows and shadow-cursed fighting became an accompaniment to my pain.
As the pain subsided, I got to my feet and turned to find the shadows swarming over the fiend, tearing it to pieces. They weren’t as strong as the fiend, but what they lacked in strength, they made up for in sheer numbers. Like piranhas attacking larger prey. They tore the shadow-cursed apart, ripping off limbs, drenching the surrounding area in blood and gore. They didn’t eat; they just killed, and when they were done, when there wasn’t enough left of the shadow-cursed for it to be recognizable as once being anything, the shadows turned to me.
I smiled. “Casimir, Maria, you both okay?”
“Yes, boss,” Casimir said, their voice distant. They’d need to recharge.
“Go,” Maria said. “Help your friends. Don’t take so long to return to us next time.”
The shadows closest to me started to move my way. “I won’t,” I told her, and smoke poured out of my hands, covering me as I vanished from the embers.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
There are two places you can leave the embers from on Earth. One is where you consider your home. The second is where you have something personal that means a lot to you. In my case, both of those options meant there was only one place I could go. My apartment in Brooklyn.
I opened my eyes and found myself sat on the floor of my apartment bedroom. My room was still as I’d left it. No one knew that I lived there; the entire apartment and all of the bills were under the name Matthew Nelson, so I wasn’t concerned that I’d arrive to a battalion of Mason Barnes’ private army.
I wondered if Dale had told his Sovereign Humanity buddies that we lived in the same building, but there wasn’t much I could do about that right now.
I opened my wardrobe and unearthed the safe. I hadn’t expected to be opening it again so soon, but if my life had taught me anything, it was to expect the unexpected.
I entered the code on the keypad, opened the safe door, and removed the contents, placing them all on my bed. I opened the black-velvet drawstring bag first, staring at the medallion as it tumbled into my hand. It looked identical to the one in Mason’s private room: a shield with a hammer and sword crossed over it, and a Raven perched atop. There was a space between the shield and hammer, where the two crossed, and I removed the green gem from my pocket and placed it inside.
The medallion flashed twice as the crystal fused itself to the metal, and when it was done, it flashed once more. The promise crystal would not be removed until the oath was fulfilled. However long that took.
I slipped the medallion over my head, feeling the cold metal chain against my skin. While I knew there was no going back to my quiet life, placing the medallion against my chest once more made everything feel even more real.
I opened the duffle bag, which contained a half a million dollars in bills and five more velvet pouches, each one containing another Raven medallion. I zipped the bag shut. I didn’t need them right now. There was also the larger velvet pouch, which I opened, removing the hooded mask inside. The mask was black with a dark grey hood, and there were dark grey marks around the eyeholes, and identically coloured slashes along either side of the mask. The mask of a Guild Talon.
I stared at the mask for several seconds. Talons are trained to remove threats to the Guild. Both internal and external. They’re trained to quietly deal with any problems that arise so that the Guild is kept safe and the members don’t need to be concerned with such matters. There are two Talons to every Guild, and they’re meant to keep their Guild safe. The second Talon had died defending the Guild. We had failed to keep our Guild safe. It was not a failure I would repeat.
The metal briefcase contained a Heckler & Koch P30L. I’d removed it from its case and kept it clean and in good condition every month since I’d put it there. I checked the gun over, making sure it was all okay, before loading the three magazines with thirteen .40 S&W ammo rounds. I removed the leather holster from the case and put it around my waist, feeling the gun against my right hip and putting the two magazines in the back, before removing two long daggers from the case. Both had a blue-and-purple tinge to the blade, although one was larger, with a wider blade, and only one sharp edge. Both were rift-tempered. I wish I’d had them back in the embers. I put one in the sheath against my back, and the other, larger one in the sheath at my left hip.
The last item in the metal case was a set of rift-tempered knuckledusters. I slipped them into my pocket. They were good in a pinch, and while it was unlikely that I could kill a revenant, fiend, or riftborn with them, I could certainly do some damage, and sometimes that was enough.
I grabbed a black hoodie and changed into a clean dark green T-shirt and pair of jeans.
I left my bedroom with the duffle bag in my hand and walked into my front room, dropping the bag, and drawing my gun at Dale Winters, who sat behind my sofa, fear clear to see on his face. A sandwich had been placed on the sofa. Whatever else Dale was, he was not good at hiding.
“Hey, Dale,” I said, keeping the gun on him. “I think you’re going to have to explain a lot.”
“I’m not who you think I am; please don’t shoot,” he said in one breath.
“Explain better,” I told him.
“My wallet,” he said, the contents of his sandwich beginning to spill out.
“Take the food off my sofa before you stain my carpet,” I said. “Where’s your wallet?”
Dale did as he was asked and put the food back on the plate, before keeping one hand up while he removed the wallet from his jeans pocket and tossing it across the coffee table to me.
I kept one eye on Dale as I picked it up and glanced at the FBI ID inside. “You’re a fed?” I asked.
“Undercover,” Dale said.
“Keep explaining,” I told him, not lowering the gun.
“I was put undercover with Sovereign Humanity because they have ties to Mason Barnes, who we’re pretty sure is dealing in stolen revenant DNA. He’s trying to make his own revenants, or fiends, or something. There’s a lot there. Anyway, my bosses put me inside because Mason’s security staff are almost entirely linked to Hamble PD.”
“He uses cops as security?” I asked.
“Ex-cops, but the cops on HPD just let everything go,” Dale said. “The whole Barnes empire is basically allowed to do what they like in Hamble; the police will back them up. I was to find evidence linking Mason and HPD to illegal activities. And I found a lot. Dangerous experiments, bribery, extortion, murder, people vanishing if they piss him off. I gave all of the evidence to my handler. Emily West.”
“Special Agent West was your handler?” I asked.
“Not at first,” Dale said. “But two months ago, my handler was murdered. He had his head cut off. His family were executed too. Emily took it on, as she was friends with him. Only people who knew were Emily and a few select people in the FBI. She doesn’t know who to trust, so she trusts no one.”
“Yeah, I got that impression,” I told him. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re in my apartment, eating my food.”
“My food,” he said before he could stop himself.
“What?”
“I’ve been here two weeks,” he said. “I had this food ordered in.”
“Two weeks?” I said more to myself than to Dale.
Dale nodded. “I knew you lived here, but when you vanished, Dan and the rest of the Mason brigade started to look for you, but no one knew you were here. I didn’t tell Brad and his people that you lived in the same building as me. I thought maybe having someone who I knew wasn’t involved with them might help.”
“How’d you know I wasn’t involved?” I asked.
“You were at the bar,” he told me. “Friends with the people there; also, you beat the ever-loving shit out of two SH members. Gave me a good clue. Emily found out where you lived and contacted me, asked me to keep an eye out in case you came back.”
“Emily happen to say how she knew where I lived?” I asked.
Dale nodded. “She said . . .” He paused, trying to remember something. “Gabriel.”
I lowered the gun.
“This building isn’t under your name, is it? I thought it was safe.”
“Safe for what?” I asked.
“Two days after you vanished, they went after your friends,” Dale said. “They torched a church, they hurt people, and somehow they found out that I was undercover. A week after you vanished, they came for me one night, and I managed to get away. I got back to my place, but I knew it wasn’t safe, didn’t know where else to go. I came here.”
“Your apartment is inhabited with Mason’s goons?”
“Brad,” Dale said. “And a few others. They turned up looking for me and, I guess, are waiting to see if I’ll come back. They patrol the building sometimes; they have badges, tell anyone who asks that they’re cops just keeping an eye on the place because I was a terrorist.”
Dale looked genuinely upset at the idea of people thinking he was a terrorist, which I couldn’t exactly blame him for.
“Have you heard anything about my friends?” I asked.
Dale shook his head. “Dan woke up; they knew they needed to get him out of the hospital soon. No one else was meant to survive, so I hear. The RCU lady did, and as the FBI and RCU were protecting them, they needed a way to get to her and remove the threat. I think it was Dan’s idea to attack everyone all at the same night, to eliminate the threat. I bugged Brad’s office, heard all about it. You weren’t meant to be there, though, and from what I hear, Dan is pretty livid that you survived.”
Good. “But not everyone is dead, right?”
Dale shook his head again. “No. After the attack at the hospital, the FBI were stood down.”
“Wait, what?”
“Don’t know why,” Dale said. “I spoke to Emily a few days ago; she was told it was an RCU matter.”
“That’s insane,” I said.
“I don’t know what happened to any of your friends, though, “Dale said. “After they burned the church, they went after me, and I spent a few days getting back to Brooklyn.”
“So, how long have I been gone?” I asked him.
“Twenty-three days,” he said.
I looked up at the ceiling and let out an irritated breath between clenched teeth. “Damn it,” I whispered to myself.
He shook his head. “That medallion, you’re a Guild member?”
“A Raven,” I told him.
“I heard Dan talk about you,” Dale said. “He was ranting at Mason. I think he’s scared of you.”
“Good,” I said. “Have you tried contacting your higher-ups in the FBI?”
Dale nodded. “They told me to wait at home, and then Brad arrived with his goons, so I’m thinking there’s a leak somewhere, and honestly, I figured I’d stay here a few weeks and then try to work out what to do next. They know I’m a fed, but they will have no problems with putting a bullet in my head.”
“So, Dan is a leak for the RCU, and there’s a leak at the FBI?” I asked. “They got the FBI to stand down, so it sounds like Mason has some powerful friends. Half a dozen FBI agents killed, plus two whistle-blowers. For what? And why would the FBI want their own people killed?”
“I don’t know,” Dale said.
“Why would Dan betray us all?” I asked, more to myself than to get a response from Dale. Not just all of us, but to be a part of the deaths of the Raven Guild. Just how long had all of this been in place?
“Way I hear it, he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Dale said. “Don’t know what it is, but it must have been good.”
“Okay, so, you can come with me,” I said.
“To where?” Dale asked.
“We’re going to go see if we can get transport back to Rochester. My friends are there; we’ll find them somehow. Then I plan on hunting down Dan and hanging him by his own spleen.”
Dale nodded.
“Stay here,” I told him. “Get ready to leave.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked me.
“I’m going to go say hi to Brad,” I told him, and walked toward the door.
“That medallion will mean that what you do is legal, yes?” Dale called after me.
I turned back to him. “I’m in pursuit of dangerous individuals,” I said. “So, yes.”
Dale shook his head. “Be careful; they might be cops, but they’re bad people.”
“I will,” I said, placing the Talon’s mask next to the door, opening it, and stepping out into the empty hallway. “Be prepared to leave as soon as I return.”
I closed the door and set off down the hallway. I didn’t want to have to use my gun in this situation; last thing we needed was my neighbours to call the police. If Brad and his friends were already embedded with the HPD, there was no telling if that corruption had spread to other police departments.
I took the stairwell to the floor below and quickly checked the hallway there to ensure it was clear of threats.
There was no one in the stairwell outside of the Dale’s floor, so I stopped outside of the fire door and pushed it open ever so slightly, listening for any signs of people close by. When there was nothing, I risked opening the door further and poking my head out to check.
Two men stood outside of Dale’s apartment, which was the last one on the floor to the right of the of the stairwell, next to a large window that overlooked the front of the building. We were a few storeys up, so throwing them through the window, while tempting, would be loud and almost certain to end with more trouble than I needed right now.
I pulled my hoodie up over my head, made sure that my knee-length coat was done up so that my gun and knives weren’t visible, and stepped out of the stairwell toward the two men. They were both large, with short hair, wearing identical black jackets, jeans, and black boots, and both had an air of menace about them. One looked my way; he had a scar over his top lip that stopped just to the side of his nose. His movement made the second look over to see what was going on. He had a black eye that was just the other side of hideous. It looked like he’d been tenderized. It was possible he had.
“Gentlemen,” I said.
“What d’you want?” the scared man asked.
“I just want to see Dale,” I said. “I heard he was home. Need his advice.”
“You want to see Dale?” the man with the black eye asked, repeating my question but adding contempt.
I nodded. “Yeah, man. I’ve got some information about a revenant.” I whispered the last word as if I said it, someone might appear behind me.
“What about it?” the scared man asked, taking a step toward me, a cruel smile on his face.
“I think one of them is living in the building,” I said.
The two men stared at each other. That was a mistake.
I dashed forward, driving my elbow in the temple of the scared man, and moving on to the man with the black eye, jabbing my fingers into his throat before he could call out. His friend was unconscious before he’d hit the hallway carpet, and I dragged the other one away from the door, pushing him to the ground as he made an awful wheezing sound.
I took the guns from both men, emptying them and tossing the ammo in one direction down the hallway, and keeping hold of the guns themselves for now. The still-unconscious scared man also had a Bowie knife that I tossed down the hallway.
The man who was still struggling to breathe began to fish in his pockets, trying to get his phone out. I grabbed his wrist and pulled it away, twisting it enough to cause discomfort.
“How many in the apartment?” I asked.
Defiance radiated from his eyes.
I broke his wrist.
The defiance was replaced with agony as he tried to scream, but it came out as a raw, guttural cry. I kept hold of the broken wrist as the man looked up at me.
“Don’t have time to play games,” I said. “How many?”
He held up his other hand, fingers spread.
“Five?” I asked.
He nodded.
I let go of his arm and he rolled to his side, cradling the broken wrist against him. I considered removing him as a problem on a morepermanent basis, but I didn’t think my neighbours would appreciate a dead body in the hallway outside of their apartments.
I tossed the two Beretta 92s into a ceramic bowl filled with potpourri, making a loud clinking noise as they landed, before removing my coat and dropping it to the floor, and trying the handle on Dale’s apartment door, finding it unlocked. I pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed it behind me with an audible click.
With only one bedroom, the apartment was smaller than my own, but the layout was pretty much identical. There were three men, all of whom were sat in the front room. None were Brad, although all three of them turned to look at me. I waved at them, which appeared to confuse them more than anything else.
