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I'd seen weirder things than a haunted shoe, but not many
The Nike Pegasus sat on the office's desk, inoffensive, colored in shades of gray, white, and orange So around the soles It was the left shoe
As for th coat, I had a Glock 22 loaded with bullets carrying a higher-than-legal steel content A cartridge of silver ones rested in the coat's pocket Two athames lay sheathed on my other hip, one silver-bladed and one iron Stuck into my belt near theems to probably blow up the desk in the corner if I wanted to
To say I felt overdressed was so of an understatement
"So," I said, keeping my voice as neutral as possible, "what makes you think your shoe isuh, possessed?"
Brian Montgo hairline in serious denial, eyed the shoe nervously and moistened his lips "It always tripsaround I mean, I never actually see it, butlike, I'll take them off near the door, then I co And sometimessometimes I touch it, and it feels coldreally coldlike" He groped for similes and finally picked the tritest one "Like ice"
I nodded and glanced back at the shoe, not saying anything
"Look, MissOdileor whatever I'otta do so up, and until this started happening, these were my lucky shoes And they're not cheap, you know They're an investment"
It sounded crazy to- but there was no har as I was already out here I reached into my coat pocket, the one without ammunition, and pulled out my pendulum It was a siing from it
I laced the chain's end throughfreely A an to slowly rotate of its own accord
"Well, I'll be da the pendulu there I turned to Montgo some sort of badass face, because that hat custoht be best if you stepped out of the room, sir For your own safety"
That was only half-true Mostly I just found lingering clients annoying They asked stupid questions and could do stupider things, which actually put me at more risk than them
He had no qual out of there As soon as the door closed, I found a jar of salt inon the office's floor I tossed the shoe into the middle of it and invoked the four cardinal directions with the silver athaht flaring of power, indicating it had sealed us in
Trying not to yawn, I pulled outthe silver atha that on so little sleep hadsoainst the shoe and spoke in a sing-song voice
"Come out, come out, whoever you are"
There was a h-pitched male voice snapped, "Go away, bitch"
Great A shoe with attitude "Why? You got so better to do?"
"Better things to do than waste my time with a mortal"
I ss to do in a shoe? Co it, but don't you think you're kind of pushing the envelope here? This shoe isn't even new You could have done so much better"
The voice kept its annoyed tone, not threatening but si it? Do you think I don't knoho you are, Eugenie Markharel An assassin A murderer" He practically spit out the last word "You are alone a your kind andfor anyone who can pay you enough for it That makes you more than a mercenary That makes you a whore"
I affected a bored stance I'd been called most of those names before Well, except forNot that I'd let him know that
"Are you done whining? Because I don't have time to listen while you stall"
"Aren't you being paid by the hour?" he asked nastily
"I charge a flat fee"
"Oh"
I rolled ain This ti upon my own body's physical stamina as well as soames If you leave on your own, I won't have to hurt you Come out"
He couldn't stand against that command and the poithin it The shoe trembled, and set incinerated during this Montgomery wouldn't be able to handle that
The se, dark form about two feet taller than me With all his wisecracks, I'd sort of expected a saucy version of one of Santa's elves Instead, the being before me had the upper body of a well-muscled man, while his lower portion reseray-black skin, and I had only a moment to act as I assessed this new develop the clip as I pulled it out By then, he was lunging for me, and I had to roll out of his way, confined by the circle's boundaries
A keres Afey, which required silver bullets; or a spectre, which required no bullets Keres were ancient death spirits originally confined to canopic jars When the jars wore down over time, keres tended to seek out new homes There weren't too many of them left in this world, and soon there'd be one less
He bore down on me, and I took a nice chunk out of hiht hand, the one I wore an onyx and obsidian bracelet on Those stones alone would take a toll on a death spirit like hih, he hissed in pain and hesitated ato load the silver cartridge
I didn't quite ain He hit ainst the walls of the circle They ht be transparent, but they felt as solid as bricks One of the downsides of trapping a spirit in a circle was that I got trapped too My head and left shoulder took the brunt of that ih me in small starbursts He seemed pretty pleased with himself over this, as overconfident villains so often are
"You're as strong as they say, but you were a fool to try to cast me out You should have left ravelly
I shook et rid of the dizziness "It isn't your shoe"
I still couldn't swap that goddaain, not with both hands full Yet I couldn't risk dropping either weapon
He reached for ain The wounds were small, but the athame was like poison It would wear hi I moved to strike at him once more, but he anticipatedit in an unnatural position and forcing me to drop the atharabbed me by the shoulders with both hands and liftedface to face with him His eyes were yelloith slits for pupils, much like some sort of snake's His breath was hot and reeked of decay as he spoke
"You are senie Markham, but you are lovely and your flesh is warm Perhaps I should beat the rush and take youyou scream beneath me"
Ew Had that thing just propositioned ain How in the world did he know that? None of them knew that I was only Odile to them, named after the dark swan in Swan Lake, a name coined by my stepfather because of the for the Otherworld The nah I doubted any of the creatures I fought knew the reference They didn't really get out to the ballet much
The keres had my upper arms pinned - I would have bruises tomorrow - but my hands and forearant and confident, that he paid no attention tohands He probably just perceived the motion as a futile effort to free ed one cluain ain Bullets probably couldn't kill him, but a silver one in the center of his chest would certainly hurt
He stumbled back, half-surprised, and I wondered if he'd ever even encountered a gun before It fired again, then again and again and again The reports were loud; hopefully Montgo in The keres roared in outrage and pain, each shot ainst the circle's boundary I advanced on hi in my hand In a few quick motions, I carved the death symbol on the part of his chest that wasn't bloodied froh the air of the circle Hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I could smell ozone, like just before a storm
He screae or adrenaline or whatever else these creatures ran on But it was too late for him He was ht have simply banished him to the Otherworld; I tried not to kill if I didn't have to But that sexual suggestion had just been out of line I was pissed off now He'd go to the world of death, straight to Persephone's gate
I fired again to slow hih to hit him I had already traded the athame for the wand This time, I didn't draw on the power from this plane With well-practiced ease, I let part of my consciousness slip this world In moments, I reached the crossroads to the Otherworld That was an easy transition; I did it all the time The next crossover was a little harder, especially withI couldn't do automatically I kept my own spirit well outside of the land of death, but I touched it and sent that connection through the wand It sucked him in, and his face twisted with fear
"This is not your world," I said in a low voice, feeling the power burn through me and around me "This is not your world, and I cast you out I send you to the black gate, to the lands of death where you can either be reborn or fade to oblivion or burn in the flaive a shit Go"
He screa in the air, a buildup of pressure, and then it ended abruptly, like a deflated balloon The keres was gone too, leaving only a shower of gray sparkles that soon faded to nothing
Silence I sank todeeply My eyes closed a moment, as my body relaxed and my consciousness returned to this world I was exhausted but exultant too Killing hiotten what he deserved, and I had been the one to deal it out
Minutes later, soth returned I stood and opened the circle, suddenly feeling stifled by it I put omery
"Your shoe's been exorcised," I told hi the difference between a keres and a true ghost; he wouldn't understand
I'd seen weirder things than a haunted shoe, but not many
The Nike Pegasus sat on the office's desk, inoffensive, colored in shades of gray, white, and orange So around the soles It was the left shoe
As for th coat, I had a Glock 22 loaded with bullets carrying a higher-than-legal steel content A cartridge of silver ones rested in the coat's pocket Two athames lay sheathed on my other hip, one silver-bladed and one iron Stuck into my belt near theems to probably blow up the desk in the corner if I wanted to
To say I felt overdressed was so of an understatement
"So," I said, keeping my voice as neutral as possible, "what makes you think your shoe isuh, possessed?"
Brian Montgo hairline in serious denial, eyed the shoe nervously and moistened his lips "It always tripsaround I mean, I never actually see it, butlike, I'll take them off near the door, then I co And sometimessometimes I touch it, and it feels coldreally coldlike" He groped for similes and finally picked the tritest one "Like ice"
I nodded and glanced back at the shoe, not saying anything
"Look, MissOdileor whatever I'otta do so up, and until this started happening, these were my lucky shoes And they're not cheap, you know They're an investment"
It sounded crazy to- but there was no har as I was already out here I reached into my coat pocket, the one without ammunition, and pulled out my pendulum It was a siing from it
I laced the chain's end throughfreely A an to slowly rotate of its own accord
"Well, I'll be da the pendulu there I turned to Montgo some sort of badass face, because that hat custoht be best if you stepped out of the room, sir For your own safety"
That was only half-true Mostly I just found lingering clients annoying They asked stupid questions and could do stupider things, which actually put me at more risk than them
He had no qual out of there As soon as the door closed, I found a jar of salt inon the office's floor I tossed the shoe into the middle of it and invoked the four cardinal directions with the silver athaht flaring of power, indicating it had sealed us in
Trying not to yawn, I pulled outthe silver atha that on so little sleep hadsoainst the shoe and spoke in a sing-song voice
"Come out, come out, whoever you are"
There was a h-pitched male voice snapped, "Go away, bitch"
Great A shoe with attitude "Why? You got so better to do?"
"Better things to do than waste my time with a mortal"
I ss to do in a shoe? Co it, but don't you think you're kind of pushing the envelope here? This shoe isn't even new You could have done so much better"
The voice kept its annoyed tone, not threatening but si it? Do you think I don't knoho you are, Eugenie Markharel An assassin A murderer" He practically spit out the last word "You are alone a your kind andfor anyone who can pay you enough for it That makes you more than a mercenary That makes you a whore"
I affected a bored stance I'd been called most of those names before Well, except forNot that I'd let him know that
"Are you done whining? Because I don't have time to listen while you stall"
"Aren't you being paid by the hour?" he asked nastily
"I charge a flat fee"
"Oh"