I shook my head. This is what happened when gods became involved in mortals. And beneath it all was the empty hole that Sheridan once filled. I swallowed the lump in my throat as the reality of it hit me. She was really gone. I had failed her.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop the sobs from rising in my throat and spun away from the both of them. Their continued arguing faded into the background as I stumbled back to the parking lot. I slammed my fist on my trunk and leaned over as a strangled cry left my throat. My breath came out in strangled gasps as tears streamed down my cheeks.
And in my moment of another emotional breakdown, my tattoo burned. A figured stepped out of the shadows and under one of the streetlamps.
James’s pale, dead eyes stared at me, and his lips curled in a twisted, predatory grin.
Chapter 24
My blood froze in my veins, and an ill feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Beyond the murkiness of James’s eyes lay a squirming darkness filled with a never-ending hunger. If any human had seen him, they would have screamed zombie. I knew better.
A ker stood before me. When Pandora opened the jar, the keres, the daimones of violent deaths, escaped in droves. They enjoyed trolling battlefields and preyed upon the dying. I don’t know what the ancient Greeks were thinking when they spun stories of the keres all those centuries ago. Maybe they wanted to sleep safe in their beds with the belief that everything served a purpose, so they told their children that keres sent the dying souls to the underworld before feeding on their blood. The keres never cared about blood.
“Another pretty pandoran.” James’s vocal cords strained under its words and came out in a wheeze.
“Oh, you’ve met us.” I gulped down the bile in my throat and stepped back in a defensive stance. “I guess the last one didn’t give you a big enough ass whooping.”
He gave a rippling laugh as he darted to the side. “He wanted you saved for last, but why should I listen? He’s ignored us for so long. I want to taste your soul.”
Yep, the keres fed on the souls of people who died violently.
“Who is he?” I asked.
He smiled, a pale resemblance of what it had been when James had lived, causing my chest to tighten. “You’re a little slow. I hope you fight better than you think.”
“I guess you’ll find out soon enough.” I brought my hands up. “But James’s will be your last meal.”
“You’re doomed either way. You should just let this happen. It’ll be quicker.” He laughed and, with the flick of his wrists, his fingernails grew into jagged claws.
He gave a dry screech and flew at me. As if a switch had been flipped in me, all the sorrow and tears boiled up inside me and became something scorching. I would rip this thing from James’s corpse and drain it until it was nothing but a memory. His claws slashed at my face. I stepped to the side and brought my knee up into the creature’s abdomen and was rewarded with a dull thud. I hopped back, sucking the air between my teeth and shaking my hand.
He laughed, a rattling of phlegm in lungs that shouldn’t work, and patted his chest. “You’ll have to hit harder than that for me to feel anything.”
My rage boiled over, filling my veins, and flames sparked from my fingers until my hands were two balls of fire. It was my own, a part of me and my resonance, and unlike my aunt’s fire, I felt no heat. He would, though. He’d scream until there was nothing but ashes.
He smirked. “The other one thought fire would help her, too. Then I drove my claws into her stomach and pulled out her innards. Let’s have a repeat performance.”
“You talk to too damn much,” I said.
I came in with my fiery fist raised to strike his head. He ducked to the side, like I knew he would. He watched my hands when he should have been watching all of me. I spun around and kicked his legs out from under him. He flopped on the ground with his eyes wide with surprise. I brought my fist down to his chest, but he rolled out of the way, and it slammed into the concrete instead.
A jolt erupted from my knuckles and traveled up my arm. The ker jumped to his feet with surprising spryness for a dead body.
“Go ahead and burn me up.” He grinned. “I’ll just find a new one. This soul is all but gone anyway.”
I swallowed and let the flames die down. As much as I wanted this thing gone, frying James’s corpse wouldn’t do it. I had to suck it up. I flexed my fingers, trying to get rid of the tingling sting, and brought my hands up. His grin stretched wider, revealing pointy jagged teeth.
In a blur of motion, he rushed at me, his claws aimed at my abdomen. I batted his arm to the side and jabbed two knuckles in the side of his throat. He grabbed my arm at the wrist and twisted, yanking me forward. My whole arm went numb, and I was forced to my knees as it was pulled behind my back. The ker leaned down so his mouth was close to my ear. The stench of rot and death gagged me.