Beyond Everlight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 1) Read online

  “The tithe.”

  “Yeah, the tithe.” I was surprised he knew so little about our biggest adversary, but then, he couldn’t see them like I could, and he hadn’t sought out the knowledge simply to understand.

  We dealt with the otherworld denizens—the riffraff that loitered on the outskirts of the fifth dimension where the djinn resided. The djinn themselves were a mystery to most of humanity. If not for Valla and the few other migrants I’d befriended, I would probably be just as clueless.

  Djinn were made of smokeless fire, they could manipulate their form, and the more powerful ones could manipulate a human mind if allowed to get close enough. Before our realities had collided they’d tested the membrane, pushing against it from time to time, leaving behind a residue of fear that we struggled to comprehend. Ghosts, aliens, demons—we gave them all kinds of names simply to understand what it was we were experiencing. And now we knew. Now we were true neighbours, and for some reason the djinn themselves had deigned to leave us to our fate, all except Erebus who seemed determined to aid us.

  “I better get back to the commander. Wait a few minutes before leaving just in case.”

  I nodded. I knew the drill.

  He slipped out of the door, closing it firmly behind him, and I found a seat and pulled off my stupid fancy shoes.

  A flicker in the periphery of my vision had me whipping round to scan the far side of the room. Nothing but shelves and books, and a moving shadow! I was on my feet, yanking Frieda from her holster at my thigh.

  The dark-haired djinn peeled himself from the bookshelves, materialising before me in all his glory. His obsidian eyes flashed in the everlight emitted by my sword.

  He reached for it and wrapped his fingers around it. “Your toys cannot hurt me. Tell me, how do you know what we speak?”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  He leaned in, his lip curling, his nostrils flaring. “Do not play games with me human. Tell me where you came to learn it?”

  “Learn what?”

  The air behind him rippled and he paused, cocked his head, and closed his eyes as if listening to something. All I could hear was the pounding of my own heart. My only weapon was useless against him. I was at his mercy. I wanted to run, but he still had a grip on my sword.

  And then he didn’t.

  He opened his eyes and stared into my soul. “I’ll be watching . . .”

  He stepped back and vanished.

  I didn’t wait to see if he would return. I legged it the hell out of that room as fast as I could.

  CHAPTER15

  “Y

  ou sure you don’t want me to pop round before I head to base?”

  “Nah, I’m just gonna get an early night,” Brett said.

  I glanced at my watch. It was only six p.m. No point arguing with him though. He wanted space and I’d give it to him . . . for now. But there was no way I was letting him slip into the habit of being alone. That wasn’t who he was, and he owed it to Danny to go on living.

  “Fine, but I’m coming over to grab you for breakfast before shift tomorrow morning!”

  He sighed. “Fine.”

  I hung up and headed for the shower. I had a meeting with Blane in less than an hour, and if I was gonna get chewed out for the ballroom incident two days ago, then I wanted to look hot and smell like daisies while doing it.

  ***

  Forty-five minutes later, dressed in jeans, a polo shirt, my favourite boots, leather jacket, and with my hair blown out to look magazine worthy, I stepped out of the lift and strode toward Blane’s office. I got a few appreciative looks from the guys, and even a wolf whistle or two, which kinda made my day.

  I didn’t get to dress up often so it was nice to be reminded that, yeah, I was attractive when not covered in grime or gore.

  Vanessa looked up as I approached. “He’s not here.” Her face looked pinched. “He wants you to meet him on the roof.”

  The roof? I backed up and headed back toward the lift. There was an access stairwell to the roof beside it. I took the three flights of stairs two at a time. What the hell was he doing on the roof?

  I pushed open the door and answered my own question.

  A small gazebo draped with twinkling lights sat in the middle of the roof, under which sat a table for two, lit by flickering candle light. Blane stood up, smoothing his jacket and licking his lips. He looked . . . nervous. Oh, shit, was this a soften-the-blow-because-you’re-being-demoted dinner? He smiled, but it looked shaky. My stomach quivered. I liked being Alpha Unit. I liked being in charge.

  “You look gorgeous babe,” Blane said.

  I sighed, just wanting to get it over with. “Okay, just hit me with it. What’s the damage?”

  “Huh?”

  I rolled my eyes. “The dinner, all this,” I waved a hand to encompass the scene. “They want you to demote me, don’t they?”

  Blane opened and closed his mouth and then burst out laughing.

  “What? What’s so funny?” Unless . . . unless this wasn’t a softening-the-blow-meal. Maybe this was just . . . a meal? Oh, shit. Now I felt stupid.

  “Sit down, come on.” Blane waved me over. “I promised you a proper date, but . . .”

  “We both know that can’t happen.” I took the seat opposite him. “I get it.”

  “I hate it.”

  “Vanessa knows.”

  He nodded, “She was so sweet about it, even helped set it all up.”

  Maybe I had misunderstood her intentions all along. “Well, thank her from me.” I glanced at the ice bucket. “Is that bubbly?” I rubbed my hands together.

  Blane reached for the bottle and poured us both a glass. “Before we drink there’s something I want to say.” He took a deep breath “I didn’t believe in love at first sight, not until the day you walked into the base all sass and wit, and I recall thinking—this is it, this is the one. I couldn’t believe my luck when you showed interest, and throughout it all I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for you to tell me you’ve made a mistake by being with me.” He ducked his head. “Yeah, I know I come across all macho and shit, but that’s the man they expect me to be. But with you everything is different. There are rules . . . strict rules about relationships between Fearless, but some rules are made to be broken. Kenna, I would fight the world for you. I would stop being Fearless, if I could, just to be with you. Because I love you.”

  My breath caught in my throat. When Lauren had asked me a couple of months ago if I loved Blane I hadn’t been sure, but now, in this moment, with those words pouring from his lips, I couldn’t have been more sure. We’d messed around for a while now, and yeah, somewhere along the line I’d fallen for him. But the sacred L word was a word of no return, a commitment that broke the rules we were bound by.

  “I—”

  “No, let me finish. I love you, and I want us to be together any way we can, so . . .” he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small black box. Placing it on the table between us he flipped the lid to reveal a silver key. “Kenna Carter, I know I can’t ask you to be Mrs. Greene just yet, but until I can, will you be my roommate for life?”

  Man, I am so not the blubbering kind, but this had to be an exception. My vision blurred as I reached for the key, my heart in my mouth, my pulse racing. “Blane, I—”

  My radio crackled, interrupting the moment. I swiped at my eyes and reached for it.

  “Alpha Unit requested at Market Borough. Coordinates dispatched to riders. Immediate attention required.”

  “Fuck!” Blane sat back in his chair.

  I chuckled and plucked the key from the box. “Yes, I will be your roomy.” I leaned across the table and planted a kiss on his lips. “Wait up for me tonight,” I held up the key and winked.

  “You can bet on it.”

  I left him with a grin on his beautiful face and hope in my heart. It was only when I was slipping my helmet on that I realised I hadn’t told him I loved him back.

  ***


  I pulled into the neighbourhood that dispatch had sent and saw the other two riders.

  This was a big-guns call.

  The area was on the outskirts of Market Town and didn’t benefit from everlight but was usually lit by an abundance of oil lamps, except tonight every lamp post was dead. Adam raised a hand and Nathan lifted his chin in greeting. They were both big guys, but Adam had a more athletic build while Nathan opted for pumping iron. Once again, a well thought-out pairing from the powers that be.

  I dismounted and headed over. “So, what are we looking at?” My gaze slid over their shoulders at the street shrouded in darkness. Thank goodness the moon was high tonight, because it would be our only source of light. Less than a mile behind me was the hustle of the market, which was lit up with everlight. “What the hell happened to the lamps?”

  Adam shrugged. “No idea. They winked out a few minutes ago. But we have a bigger problem.”

  “The Hat Man,” Nathan said.

  Oh crap. We’d come across this denizen twice before, and each time he’d managed to wreak havoc then give us the slip. Easy to do when you were nothing but an actual shadow. I’d done some research on him the last time we’d come across him, and there was lore that went back to the time before. He was the ultimate bogey man, the shadow on the wall with no caster, the coat on the hook that morphed and became a person, the thing that had prompted children all across the world to ask to sleep with the lights on.

  The Hat Man was a legend we had yet to vanquish with our everlight.

  “We’ve urged residents to stay indoors and stay together. They have candles and working oil lamps. We’ve made a call to the street lighters. Someone should be here shortly to sort out the lamp posts.” Adam’s tone was calm and steady, but the tick of his jaw told me how tense he was.

  His tension was infectious. “Okay, we should split up and sweep the area.”

  Nathan glanced at the road behind me. “Where’s Brett?”

  “He’ll be here. You guys get going. I’ll be fine on my own until then.”

  Nathan frowned. “You’ll stay put till he arrives?”

  I gave him the look. The one that said remember who’s in charge.

  He held up his hands. “Yeah, yeah, I know you know the drill.”

  Never go in without back-up; it was the first rule of many. I watched as they strode off into the darkness, their everlight swords glowing brightly to light their way. I activated the luma skin on my ride and leaned against it while I waited for Brett. Five long minutes later I radioed in, only to be told that Brett had been called out at the same time as me.

  A shrill scream ripped through the air to my right, followed by the sound of gunshots. Who the hell had managed to get hold of one of those? We didn’t carry guns. Guns did jack against the denizens, which meant it was a civilian discharging a retro firearm.

  Fuck!

  I was supposed to wait but . . .

  Dammit, where the heck was Brett?

  Another scream followed by more gunshots.

  The Hat Man could be attacking right now! I could finish this. I activated Frieda and began to run through the dark toward the screams. My boot-falls echoed eerily down the street. The houses looked dead and empty. The residents were probably huddled together in one room with all the light they could muster.

  The scream came again, reverberating through the silent street.

  I adjusted my trajectory and veered toward it. I skidded to a halt beside a semi-detached house; the scream had come from the alley between the houses.

  Alleys were bad news.

  I hefted Frieda. “You with me girl?” I imagined she pulsed in agreement. Man I was desperate. My hand went to my radio but I changed my mind. If the Hat Man was down this alley, there was no time to waste.

  I entered the darkness, haloed by Frieda’s everlight. Sweeping her from side to side I avoided the bins and debris and . . . Oh god, no . . . I fought the impulse to drop Frieda, gripping her tighter instead. Adam’s dead, sightless eyes stared up at me as the black necrotic effects of the Hat Man’s touch crept over his face, eating at his skin and devouring what was left of him. His body exploded in a spray of silent ash.

  There were no words. Only action. I had to find Nathan.

  Please don’t be dead. Please . . . Frieda’s light swept over another pile of ash.

  Nathan?

  I couldn’t be sure, but my gut told me I was alone, standing in a fucking alley without back-up. Not that back-up had helped Adam and Nathan. I reached for my radio and jerked as something whizzed past me just beyond my halo of light. There was a vice around my lungs as I struggled to breathe. Breathe dammit. I could do this. I just needed to get the hell out of the alley and back to my ride. I just needed to call for back-up.

  Where the fuck was Brett?

  I began to back up slowly, sweeping Frieda back and forth, keeping the shadows at bay, and then I saw them—long and distorted up against the walls of the houses to either side of me. The Hat Man, a woman in a dress, a child, another man with no hat . . . there were more, so many more, and they were closing in on me. Fingernails scraped along my scalp and a voice echoed in my head.

  Delectable.

  The icy fist of fear unfurled in my belly.

  I turned and ran.

  I burst from the alley and into the streets, the Shadow People at my back. My ride was a bright spec that seemed too far away. The houses around me were shut tight.

  I was on my own, my breath a knot in my tight lungs.

  And then a door was flung open to my left.

  “Come on! You can make it!” A young girl with wild blonde hair was waving me madly toward her.

  I put on a burst of speed, racing up her path and into her hallway. She slammed the door behind me and yanked me into the kitchen which was bathed in candle light.

  I fell into a chair.

  “Thank you . . .?”

  “Emma. What’s your name?”

  “Kenna.” I looked around. “Where are your parents?”

  “Out of town. I thought I was old enough to stay home by myself but now . . .” her bottom lip trembled. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen; she still had the baby fat of youth on her cheeks.

  “It’s okay. I’m gonna call for back-up and we’ll be just fine.” I reached for my radio and grabbed air. An arctic finger of dread ran up my spine.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  I plastered a smile on my face. “It’s alright. I must have dropped my radio, but there’s one on my bike. I just need to go out and—”

  “No!” She clutched my arm. “You can’t leave me here alone!”

  “You’ll be fine. You have light.”

  “Yeah but the candles are going down.”

  A quick survey of the clean minimalistic kitchen space confirmed that she was right. The candles had barely an inch or so left, they wouldn’t last long enough for back-up to arrive. My ride had a luma skin. If we could get to it, then we would be safe.

  “You got running shoes kid?”

  She nodded quickly. “Under the stairs.”

  I went with her; Frieda held aloft, and waited patiently while the candles sank and she tied her laces in double knots. Good girl, we couldn’t risk a trip or fall out there.

  We gathered by the front door. “It’s a straight run down the street to my ride, it’s surrounded by everlight. Just keep up.”

  She grinned, a cocky grin. “I run track.”

  I smiled. “Well, why didn’t you say so? On the count of three. One, two, three!”

  We were off, arms pumping as we legged it down the street. My bike was getting closer; the blessed halo of everlight was getting larger. I’d radio in, we’d get back-up, and we’d clear all the Shadow People.

  And then I tripped.

  I went down hard, banging my knee and grazing my hand.

  Emma kept running for a second before skidding to a halt and turning to look for me. Her gaze slid past me, to the street be
hind me, her eyes widening. “Come on!”

  I looked back to see them advancing from both sides, but the largest, the most menacing, was the man himself, his top hat eating space as it slid across the ground toward me.

  Ice filled my veins and my breath grew short, but I wasn’t ready to admit defeat. Not yet. I pulled myself up and buckled as a sharp pain lanced through my ankle. My heart sank; there was no way I was running on that, let alone outrunning anything. I turned to Emma. “Run! Stay by the ride. Use the radio. Run!”

  She faltered for a moment, bless her heart, and then she did the smart thing.

  She ran.

  I hobbled for all I was worth, veins burning with adrenaline. Blane’s face flashed through my mind. Mum and Bella. Oh dear Bella, how would she take this. How would she cope? I wanted more than anything to tell them how much I loved them. I wanted more than anything to not die here on this street, and for the first time in forever I called out to god. I begged him to help me. To give me the strength to survive this, but my prayers were interrupted by the sensation of tiny ants crawling inside my skull.

  I hunger, you will serve me well.

  Adam and Nathan’s necrotic bodies filled my mind’s eye. “Please . . . no.” I didn’t care how weak or desperate I sounded. I just wanted to live.

  His laughter was sandpaper and nails on a chalkboard, a filthy sound that crawled under my skin, digging in its dirty claws, and then I felt his icy touch—his mark of death on my ankle.

  I will relish you.

  I stopped hobbling and turned to face him—a faceless inky black mass standing before me as he burrowed inside me—infecting me, devouring me.

  Relish . . .

  And then he was moving on

  It was over.

  The shadows surged past, headed toward Emma, but they were too late. She was at the bike.

  She was safe.

  A soft sob caught in my throat as my leg cramped in pain. The necrotic effect of his touch would spread until every cell in my body was dead, until I was nothing but ash. It would spread, unless . . . A horrific idea bloomed in my mind.