Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Read online

  I was a balloon ready to burst when he reached the bed and stopped. He turned toward me and brushed one hand through my hair. “I like yo hair, shawty. It’s dumb long.” He shook his head. “I never liked dem short-haired bitches. Not enough ta grab onta, nomsayin?”

  Well, that was certainly one way to make a girl feel special.

  “Yeah, I like it long too,” I said, grinning lasciviously at him as I raised my free hand to touch him. “You’re not going to disappoint me, are you?”

  “Naw, girl. I gots dat covered.” He leaned in close to me, his lips pressing against my neck. His touch was feverishly hot as I pressed my palm into his chest. My stomach churned so loudly, I was sure he would notice, but thankfully, he was too busy dragging his slimy tongue across my skin.

  “White sparrow!” The spell left my lips in a surge of power that died before it left my fingers. The fear I felt as my spell disappeared into the ether was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. If I couldn’t use magic, how the hell was I supposed to escape? He had been so fast before. I wasn’t sure I could hurt him quick enough for it to matter.

  “White sparrow?” the man said, pulling away and looking at me with the same confusion he’d displayed multiple times so far. I was beginning to think it might be his normal look. “Whas dat?”

  “Isn’t that you?” I said, trying to play it off. Somehow I kept the tremor out of my voice, not that it really mattered. From the way he had himself pressed against me, I was sure he only had one thing on his mind. Disgust and revulsion welled up in me. There was no way I was letting anything like that happen to me.

  “Nah, shawty.” He stepped back and poked himself in the chest with his thumb. “I’m Ratatoskr.” When I didn’t immediately respond because I was too stunned by who he was, he continued. “You musta heard of me.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be a squirrel?” I replied because Ratatoskr was the squirrel from Norse Mythology who ran between Nidhogg and the unnamed eagle at the top of Yggdrasil carrying messages and spreading gossip.

  He laughed. A full-throated belly laugh that caught me off-guard. “Now, I get it.” He shook his head. “Why din’t you say so, shawty.” He showed me his teeth, and as he did, his skin began to melt together as orange fur burst from his flesh in one rolling wave. “Ya one o’ them freaky bitches. Want it furry.” In the time it took me to blink, a man-sized squirrel wearing jeans stood in front of me. It was especially weird because he had a huge bushy tail poking up and everything. “S’okay. I get it.” The squirrel reached out and touched me with one furry paw. “S’not as uncommon as ya would think.”

  “What the hell?” I replied unable to properly frame the situation in my mind. I know I should have been scared, but I was too flabbergasted by the idea of what he thought I wanted. Was this actually going to happen to me? Seriously? What kind of f’d up shit was this?

  “C’mon, shawty,” he said, leaning in close to me, and as he did, I kicked him in the crotch as hard as I could. Now, to be fair, I’d never actually seen a squirrel’s eyes bug out of his head before, but it was seriously the funniest thing I’d ever seen. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, one furry leg twitching as he grabbed his junk with both hands and moaned.

  “Guess you won’t be storing those nuts for winter,” I said before kicking him again. The impact of the blow reverberated down my foot so hard, it physically hurt me. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he let out one last strangled cry of pain. The urge to keep kicking him until he was little more than paste filled me. Killing him sounded like a good idea, but if it left me trapped here, I’d just die too. That wasn’t happening.

  I sighed, glancing around the room and trying to find a way out of here. I wasn’t sure how long the squirrel would be down, but I damned well didn’t want to be here when he woke up. I had half a mind to try to kill him, but honestly, I wasn’t sure how. I mean, I guess I could jump up and down on his windpipe, and say… that’s not a bad idea.

  “I’d say it’s not personal, but it is,” I murmured, walking toward his head, and as I readied myself to do the two-step on his jugular, the entire wall exploded outward in a spray of shrapnel and acrid silver smoke.

  13

  As the silver smoke poured out of the hole in the wall, I had half a second to decide what to do. Squirrel-face was down, but definitely not out. Unfortunately, whatever was coming through that hole in the wall was neither. Priorities. Damn.

  I curled my hands into fists and summoned my power. Just because my magic hadn’t done anything to the jackass squirrel didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt the darkened form I could barely discern through the mist. As my eyes began to water from the acrid smoke, I inhaled a breath that tasted of charred tires and focused my will. My scalded lungs tried to rebel, but I didn’t let them. I was Lillim Callina, and I was the goddamned master here.

  Power curled around me, leaping from my skin in a splash of lavender sparks as I drew everything I could from the air around me. There was a lot more residual magic than I’d expected, probably too much if I was being totally honest with myself, but I was beyond caring. I was through getting screwed with. If they wanted Lillim Callina, they were going to get me. With magic freaking bells on.

  “Please calm yourself, ma’am,” said a voice so low it rumbled in the pit of my gut. I couldn’t make out the speaker, but the shadowy form within the smoke waved disarmingly at me. There was no power behind his words, which almost struck me as odd. Man, how screwed up was I? That said, it’d take a lot more than words right about now to make me not blast him.

  “Give me one good reason why?” I said, taking a step back so the squirrel’s massive, twitching body was between me and the guy. Hey, if he attacked, maybe squirrel-boy would be collateral damage. See, optimism.

  “I wish to take you to your friends. They are trapped within the maze of Yggdrasil. I can return you to them so you can visit doom upon Nidhogg.” He spat the name like it was a particularly foul gummy bear.

  “I don’t believe you,” I snapped as he stepped through the smoke. He stood about six and a half feet tall with skin the color of polished ivory. Scars zigzagged across his face and bald head, making me think he’d once gotten into a head-butting contest with a wood-chipper.

  He adjusted his black tie, loosening it from the collar of his pink shirt before fixing me with cool, yellow eyes. I wasn’t sure what he was, but it damned sure wasn’t human because those were hawk eyes, and last I checked, the only way he could pull that off was if he was wearing contacts. Something told me that probably wasn’t the case.

  “Then stay here,” he replied, looking me up and down before glancing at the squirrel. A smile creased the corners of his lips. “I’m sure Ratatoskr will be more than happy to keep you company.” He shrugged his broad shoulders and spun on his heel, giving me a look at his black-suited backside. Well, one thing was certain. The guy could fill out a pair of pants in all the right ways.

  Part of me wanted to stay here. After all, the last time I’d gone somewhere with someone from wherever the hell this was hadn’t exactly ended well, but at the same time, I knew what was in store for me here. Not to say, tall, pale, and weird-eyed was going to do me better, but man, could it really get worse? I let out a huge sigh and exhaled my gathered power along with it. Sparks of color leapt from my lips as I stepped around the downed squirrel, pausing only to kick him square between the eyes. It hurt my toes and was petty, but screw him. Actually, scratch that…

  The suit must have heard me because he glanced over his shoulder and raised one scarred eyebrow at me.

  “You make an excellent point,” I replied before he could say anything. “You can’t be worse than that ass clown.”

  “Ass clown.” He shook his head. “Such language is not befitting a lady.” He turned slightly and offered me his arm. “I will make an exception because you have no doubt had quite a time of it.”

  “Thanks,” I said, biting back the urge to cuss like a sailor. I mean, h
e was right. I shouldn’t talk that way. I had only taken up the habit because it annoyed my mom, and well, yeah. Maybe I should do better, but at the same time, sometimes there was no better salve for the soul than a long string of curses.

  “You are most welcome, Ms. Callina.” He smiled at me as I took his arm. He’d used my name like it was nothing, and that wasn’t good. If he knew who I was, did he have some dastardly plan in store for me? I hoped not. I’d had it up to here with people with dastardly plans for me.

  The smoke still billowed out toward us as we moved forward, and as it did, I realized it was seeping in from the hole in the wall like the open door of the smoking lounge in an airport. Damn. “Let us make haste. We do not have much time.”

  “So where are we going?” I asked as he stepped out into the void of space beyond the wall and stood on the emptiness like it was a perfectly natural thing to do. The wind started to pick up, blasting me with nearly hurricane force, and if it wasn’t for him shielding me with his body, I was sure I’d have been blown back into the squirrel’s lair.

  “Away from here.” As he spoke, black-feathered wings burst from his back. They didn’t rip through the back of his suit jacket, more it seemed like they materialized on top of it. Had they been there the whole time and been hidden by some kind of spell? Also, what the hell kind of creature had hawk wings. Only two things came to mind, gods and angels. Both of which were dicks.

  “Hold up,” I said, but before I could tell him I’d changed my mind, he pulled me against him. A surge of warmth rippled through me. It was like being wrapped in an electric blanket in the middle of a Death Valley Summer.

  “We do not have time for this if we wish to meet up with your friends in time to prevent Nidhogg from escaping. If he does, my master will leave his perch. Trust me. The absolute last thing you want is for the great eagle to do battle with Nidhogg.” To be fair, his words didn’t strike me as that bad of an idea. I mean, the more the merrier right? Still, something about what he’d said tugged at my memory. If he worked for the eagle, he should be known to me. After all, how many hawk-winged… it hit me all at once.

  “You’re Vedrfolnir, huh?” I asked as he took off, rocketing this way and that through the twisting, turning darkness. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but it almost reminded me of an ant walking across gnarled tree branches going every which way, which I guess if we were in Yggdrasil, we would be doing, sort of. Yeah, some of my analogies don’t really work out. So sue me, I’m only human.

  “Yes,” he replied, but did not elaborate, which would have been cool because Vedrfolnir was the hawk who served the eagle atop Yggdrasil. I bet he had a whole ton of interesting things he could share.

  “Um, can you turn into a giant anthropomorphic hawk?” I asked, looking up at him. He wasn’t looking at me back, which was fine because he had his eyes forward, peering into the mist like he could see. Maybe he could, or maybe he had bat powers. Either way, I was just sort of glad we hadn’t crashed.

  “Yes.” His lips quirked into a frown. “And no, you cannot ride me like this is a Tolkien movie.” He showed his white teeth.

  “You know, you’re kind of lame,” I replied, while making sure I had a firm grip on his suit. I didn’t exactly want him to drop me, and I probably should have shut the hell up, but man, I felt like he’d shown me an awesome toy and then decided to keep it for himself. The jerk.

  “I am beginning to think I should have left you with Ratatoskr.” He shook his head, and then in a startlingly good squirrel-boy voice added. “Shawty.”

  “I’ve kicked people in the crotch repeatedly for saying that word to me.” I glared at him as the realization of how close I’d come to being taken by a giant squirrel settled over me. It wasn’t over either because Ratatoskr was still alive. Sure, he might walk with a limp for a bit, but eventually he was going to get back up, and when he did, he’d come after me, no doubt. If the legends were true, he knew every nook and cranny of the world tree, Yggdrasil. There’d be no hiding from him.

  If I was still here when he came a lookin’ I didn’t want to think about what could happen. I mean, I’d kick his ass, but there was always a chance that wouldn’t work, and it wasn’t like Thes and Connor had been super helpful the last time. He’d probably just grab me and pull his ninja vanish shtick, and when I woke up, I’d be in a lot worse shape than I’d been the last time.

  “Here’s a little tip,” Vedrfolnir said as his giant wings tucked around us and we passed through a jagged opening barely wider than our bodies. “Have you ever seen the Ice Age movie?”

  “Wait, what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as his wings burst back open like a parachute. We halted so violently in the air, my stomach lurched. Ugh.

  “The movie.” He shook his head. “There is this squirrel who keeps trying to hoard his acorn. It is like his super weakness. If you get ahold of Ratatoskr’s enchanted acorn, he will pretty much do whatever you want to get it back.”

  “Good to know,” I said, wondering where it could be. I hadn’t exactly seen it in the squirrel’s den. Hell, I hadn’t seen anything but a chair and a bed. If there’d been an acorn there, it was hidden with some pretty good mojo.

  “That I cannot tell you.” He shrugged which was altogether disconcerting given our present circumstances. “But if you see it, make sure you go for it.”

  “Got it. Go for his magic nuts.” My cheeks reddened as I said the words. Had that really just come out of my mouth? Seriously, in the retelling of this, I was going to do some necessary editing.

  “Indeed.” The hawk man turned to look at me. “We have arrived. Alas, I cannot enter the maze myself, but I assure you, your friends are down there.” He pulled one arm away and pointed into the darkness below. I scrambled to keep ahold of him, but he held me easily enough with one arm that I almost wasn’t worried about falling into the darkness below. Almost.

  “What the actual Hell?” I cried, following his gaze. It just looked like more smoky darkness. “There’s nothing but black, black, and more black over there.”

  “All is not as it appears.” A smile crept along his lips I did not like even slightly. “Trust in that.” Then he dropped me. The ass.

  14

  I didn’t fall for very long, maybe a second or two, before the darkness ripped away from the horizon like a blanket torn off a sleeping toddler to reveal a maze of green hedges. I couldn’t tell how tall the wall of shrubbery was exactly, but if I had to guess, I was going with the size of a skyscraper. The sun above glared bright and hard at my back, scorching my flesh in a way I knew would leave a wicked bad sunburn, but I ignored it as I drew in my power. Still, I would have killed for some sunscreen, or you know, to know where the heck we were because our sun back home wasn’t green.

  Monsters swarmed the ground beneath me, crawling atop the dead bodies of their brethren as they tried to reach Thes and Connor who stood atop the heap of corpses like something out of Alien versus Predator. Thes seemed like he was going all out, but from the way Connor was yawning, I didn’t think he was trying terribly hard. Still, it seemed like a bad position to be in, especially since I knew Thes wouldn’t let Connor go balls out. When was he going to learn? In a fight, you do what you need to do to win, and if you happen to survive, well, then you can feel guilty.

  I crashed down atop an eighteen-foot-tall giant with skin like coal and hair like writhing blue flame so hard my boots punched his teeth into his feet. Thes spun toward me because he’d evidently missed the giant coming toward him, which seemed crazy because well, giant, but whatever.

  When he saw me, his amber wolf eyes went wide with shock. “Lillim?” he asked while backhanding a Viking across the face like Rafiki taking out a hyena in the Lion King. The Viking tumbled backward off the hill, crashing into his brethren and taking them down in a heap that sort of made me think of an avalanche.

  “Yeah, I heard you needed a hero, so I came to rescue you,” I said, whirling around and soccer kicking another giant as its head
popped into view. My toe caught it under the chin, snapping its head back with a sharp crack. The creature’s eyes glazed over as it fell backward into the horde. There were so many more where it had come from, my taking out it and the two giants behind it was like squishing a couple ants in a swarm.

  “Thank God, you’re okay,” Connor said. He was next to me in a flash, a look of relief painted across his features. “I tried to follow you, but you disappeared before I could blink.” He ground his teeth in a snarl as I glanced down at his hands to see him holding the twin blades of Shirajirashii. “I even tried to use your swords to find you, but they wouldn’t talk to me.” His face darkened. “Actually, that’s not true. The snake one stuck his tongue out at me.”

  Before I could respond, he lashed out with blinding speed, slashing through several Vikings and kicking their remains into a gaggle of giants. He’d done the whole thing in the time it took me to blink. He was fast as hell, and yet, Ratatoskr was faster. It almost didn’t seem possible. I gulped. Man, we needed to get on this before that squirrel came back to finish the job.

  “Yeah, Apep is kind of a dick that way,” I said, reaching out to take my swords. “It’s cool though. I can take care of myself. I’m a big girl.” Sure, maybe I almost got squirreled away real good and proper, but in the end, I’d gotten out of it thanks to my old standby. Always kick the bad guy in the groin. It hadn’t failed me yet, and somehow, I didn’t think it ever really would. “And I got to use a cool one liner.”

  Connor pushed the bloody swords into my hands, and as he touched my fingers, a zip of oily power arced over my skin. I ignored it as I closed my hands around the hilts of Isis and Set because a familiar rush of godly energy rippled through me. Holding the weapons was like coming home. It was sort of like finding something you never knew you’d been missing. Man, I must have really been cut off from them.