Now it feels as though they’re gaining will. Is it the stone that’s doing it? The change itself? I don’t know. I really don’t want to let them loose. Before I knew what they would do, how they operated. Now, I have no idea.
I get out of the shower and look myself over in the mirror. The last couple of months have not been kind. I’ve barely slept, depending on magic and Adderall to keep me going. I’ve been shot, stabbed, punched. Somebody took a baseball bat to my head in Hermosillo. The magic in my tattoos protected me from the brunt of it but I’m pretty sure one of my molars is loose.
Somebody else went after me with a broken bottle in Tijuana that scraped along the stone of my chest and cut a shallow furrow up the side of my neck. I had to stitch myself up with dental floss and a needle sterilized with tequila and a lighter after that one. My own damn fault for not packing a surgical kit. The scar is pink and raw. One more in a vast collection.
But things are finally starting to fall into place. I have a location on Tabitha. She told Bustillo to tell me where she was. That means she wants me to find her. She won’t be moving until I get there.
One of the things I got out of this arrangement is some of Mictlantecuhtli’s power. This dark, roiling thing that wells up inside me like it wants to tear through my skin. I could use that power to go straight to Mictlantecuhtli’s tomb, I’ve done it before. Once I’m there I could just stab him with the knife. Finish this once and for all. But I probably wouldn’t survive it.
Every time I tap into that power my body changes faster. Too much of it has gone to stone, already. Much more and the transition will be complete. How many times can I use it before it eats me up entirely? Two times? Three? Or worse, one? What if I get there and before I can stab the sonofabitch the transition completes?
So I’m doing this the hard way. Finding Tabitha’s the first step. I don’t just want her to make sure I clean up a loose end. I need her because I need a door into Mictlan.
That’s really the problem. Getting there. Once I’m inside, tracking down Santa Muerte and Mictlantecuhtli can’t be that hard. At least I’ll know what plane of existence they’re in.
The thing I’m most worried about is moving around without either of them knowing I’m there. I’ve got spells keeping her from tracking me out here, but in there, on their home turf, I don’t know how well they’ll work. I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
For now I just need to sleep.
___
My eyes snap open when the ward on the elevator breaks. Who is it? A hotel guest who’s gotten a room on this floor? Unwanted visitors with guns? I glance at the clock on the nightstand. I’ve been asleep about an hour.
They couldn’t have waited another couple hours before they came to kill me?
I close my eyes again and reach out for the rune I painted in the elevator. I can sense six men inside. Viewing through runes is a synesthetic cross-stitch of senses that all meld into one. I can feel the men’s weight, smell the gun oil on them, see the skull-printed face masks, camouflage Kevlar vests. Feel the automatic weapons at the ready.
Well, we can’t have that.
I trigger the elevator rune, but I’m too late to catch them all. A column of phosphorescent flame erupts inside the elevator, hitting two of them with a furnace blast of heat. I hear screams, yelling. The blast is hot enough to cook the skin off their bones, but not hot enough to cook off the ammunition. I made that mistake once. Almost died from all the bullets in the air.
That should buy me a couple minutes as they try to save their buddies. They’ll figure out pretty quickly that there’s nothing left to save. I roll out of bed and throw on my clothes, slide everything but my car keys and the Benelli into my bag as quickly and quietly as I can. I don’t bother to put my shoes on. No time. I step to the door, watching them through the runes.
The remaining four come down the hall, guns in shaking hands, waiting for something to move so they can shoot it. I can feel their panic, their uncertainty.
They gather around the room I’m supposed to be in. Three of them flank the door, the fourth fires a burst through it that’s loud and effective for no other reason than he just used an entire magazine on it. The hollow, plywood door blows off its hinges into the room in a shower of splinters. He does a ridiculous roll into the room. What are these guys, F-Troop?
The other three follow him inside, and I take that as my cue. I slip out of the room and hit the stairwell. One of them comes out and sees me as I’m stepping through the door. He takes a shot, the bullet blowing a hole in the wall as the door closes behind me. I take the steps two at a time.
I hit the bottom floor as the two of them get into the stairwell. I trigger the rune on the landing with a thought and another column of bright, blue fire burns through them. That’s four down, two to go.