False Gods (Sins of the Father 2)

I smiled at her, feeling a little twist of pity for the strange spider-woman. “We’ll try, Arachne. We definitely will.”

She smiled back. “One final thing, Mason Albrecht. It is my understanding that you wish to find not only Mistleteinn, but another blade as well. The one called Laevateinn.”

Again I struggled to maintain my composure. “Yes, actually,” I said. “We need it for – well, that’s not important. It only matters that we find it, too.”

“In that case,” she said in a sibilant voice, the last half of the sentence missing, as always. There it was. I knew there was a catch.

I flinched in alarm when her hands landed on the crown of my head, then slid down, fingers splaying across my face, her palm up against my brow. My words came out muffled. “I. Sorry. What’s happening?”

“A final gift.”

It was at once the creepiest and the most sensual feeling I’d ever encountered, this sensation of little threads warping and wrapping across my head. They settled there into what felt like the lightest hood, or a shroud. A veil. Arachne removed her hand, and the tickling feel of invisible silks was gone.

“Okay. What just happened?” I blinked at her. “I’m not sure if anything’s changed.”

“Call it a boon, nephilim. I’ve given you a small dose of my own magics, a mystic gossamer screen through which you will find the bearer of that most important sword. A Veil of Surveillance, if you will.” She tittered again at her own joke.

“So this is supposed to help us find Laevateinn?” I said, pressing my fingers against my face, finding nothing but skin.

“And find it you shall,” Arachne said. “But I would caution you to take care when attempting to retrieve this second sword.”

I raised one eyebrow, curious. “Why? Is it hidden somewhere dangerous?”

“Not quite,” Arachne said, steepling her fingers, smiling. “It is hidden by someone dangerous. My children have told me. Quilliam J. Abernathy. Have you heard the name?”

23

“Calm down,” Florian said, stumbling after me as I stalked out of the alleyway that contained Arachne’s tether. “Mason? Seriously, slow down at least. You’re scaring me.”

Night had fallen on Valero, and the air was cooler, crisp, but it did nothing to soothe my flaring temper. Quilliam had a ton of strikes against him now. Attempting to entrap and kidnap me was one thing. But trying to blow me and Florian up, and now taking the sword that would at once put me in a powerful god’s good graces and earn me the cash I needed to go arcane incognito?

“I’m gonna cave his skull in.” My arms swung like pendulums as I stalked the sidewalk, Little China already desolate except for some stray citizens out in search of dinner. “I’m going to enjoy rearranging that stupid fucking face of his.”

“Okay, buddy. I’m all down for that, and I’m with you. Quill is a monumental jerk. But shouldn’t we think about this first, settle down a little? We don’t know where the guy is, and there’s really no rush to head all the way out to LA this late at night.”

I whirled on my heel. Florian almost bumped into me, stopping short as I turned to confront him. He was at least a full head taller than me, but I was as big as skyscrapers when I got pissed. It was clear from the expression on Florian’s face that I looked the part, too, the glow of the glyphs on my skin reflecting in his eyes.

“No. I’m sick and tired of being a magnetic vortex for all these supernatural idiots. I’ll cut up and smash every single one that comes looking for a fight, but if there’s a way to stop the flow, then I’m going to build the dam, damn it.”

Florian twiddled his thumbs. “Bunch of mixed metaphors there, buddy.”

“Shut up. I’m taking the next bus out to LA. Gonna smash some doors in, break some windows, steal Mistleteinn, and then I’m out of there. You can join me, or you can stay here and bite your nails. I don’t care.”

I made another one-eighty, heading down the sidewalk again, feeling bad about being nasty to the one friend I had left in all of Valero, but I knew I was right. I would never be able to cut off the stream of demons and angels and entities at its source. The best option was to disap

pear outright. And I meant what I said, too. I enjoy making things break and bleed as much as the next battle-crazed nephilim, but I couldn’t hold off heaven and hell forever.

“Well, I’m coming with.” Florian’s feet stomped after me, like I knew they would. He was a good friend, and I would have to be better at reminding him of that. “I’m not letting you go alone, even if you’re being a jerk. But let’s at least stop somewhere for dinner.”

My pace slowed to let Florian catch up with me, and I breathed in carefully, knowing I’d been too harsh. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. I’m an ass. And dinner sounds great. It’ll have to be someplace cheap. I love everything Priscilla makes for us, but it’s been a good while since I’ve had a nice, classic steak. Seared on the outside, and just all good and bloody.”

“Mmm. I love bloody.”

That wasn’t Florian’s voice.

The leaves above us rustled and I leapt away in time as a blur of something silvery and beetle-black fell from the trees. Dropped out of them, rather, in a deliberate, premeditated way. The thing moved so fast that at first I thought it was a creature with a wet black hide, but my senses caught up long enough to focus on the fact that it was just a man in a leather jacket and pants. A very slender, very pale man, at that.

Uh-oh. Vampire.