Three

Four figures poured into the front room. They wore pale shirts and loose pants, almost like a karate gi. Their skins were all pale, but covered with black markings. The swirls and designs looked like script. Two tall men stood on either side, a shorter man and a woman in the center. The shorter man shouted something I couldn't make out. Midian yelped and bolted for the back of the apartment. Four pairs of eyes turned on me. Behind the elaborate tattoos, they looked surprised. Both of the tall men were holding pistols.

Fear shrilled through my veins. I should have been skittering away from them; I should have been mewling. Instead, I slipped off the wrought iron stool and spun my plate like a Frisbee. It shattered against the short man's temple, but by then the stool was already flying through the air toward them. They dodged it as I jumped, rolling over the counter on my back and landing, on my fingertips and the balls of my feet, on the kitchen floor.

The woman shrieked, and the crack of a pistol came at the same moment the countertop I'd been on burst apart. A bullet made a sound as it passed over me, a little exhalation of death.

The woman came around the corner, and as if I'd been expecting her, I launched forward, my shoulder slamming against the side of her knee. I felt something in her joint give, but her hands came down on me like thrown bricks. We struggled on the floor. I couldn't tell if she was screaming or I was, but seconds later, we were both on our feet. She had Midian's cutting knife in her hand. I could still see where the onion juice had dried on the blade.

"Who are you?" she said. She had a Slavic accent. Her eyes were the blue of gas flame. Her face was written like a Chinese scroll, columns of esoteric characters from her hairline to her neck.

I didn't know I intended to move until the skillet was in my hand. She leapt forward, the knifepoint moving for my body. I caught the blade with the skillet and spun, more gracefully than I had ever moved before, throwing the woman to one side, and then coming around to land the skillet hard on the back of her head. I heard the report of a pistol again and the refrigerator door over my shoulder puckered. I dropped and rolled, pressing my back against the cabinet, where I could neither see the front room nor be seen from it.

The woman groaned. Blood pooled beneath her head.

"Drop your guns," I shouted. "Do it now."

It was an idiotic thing to say, but I felt them hesitate. I jumped forward, grabbing a drawer at random, and, twisting from my belly, pulled. It broke free, silverware arcing through the air toward my attackers. They fired, but the shots weren't aimed. I dove out toward them.

The fear vanished. I moved as if my body simply knew what to do. I just had to stand back and let things follow their course. I rose to my feet, pushing the coffee table hard into one man's shins as I did. As he stumbled, I stepped onto the table. His descending head met my rising knee, and he spun back.

"Stop!"

The last man stood across the room from me, his legs braced, both hands on his gun, steadying it. His eyes were wide. There was no way I could get to him before he pulled the trigger. No way I could get to cover before the bullet hit me. To my surprise, I smiled.

The pistol shot startled me, and I waited for the pain. Nothing came. Shock, I thought. It's the shock. I'll die in a minute here. But then a second bullet slammed into the man, and he slumped. Blood flushed the thick pale cloth of his gi, making it look like skinned meat. Midian stood in the hallway leading to the bedroom, what looked like a World War I Lugar in his hand.

He looked at me. His expression was cool and appraising.

"You're pretty good at that," he said. "Close the door, kid."

For the space of a long breath, I didn't understand what he meant. When the trembling came, I felt like I was perfectly steady and the building was rattling. I crossed the four steps to the apartment's door and pushed it closed. The wood was splintered and white where they'd kicked it in. The earthquake in my body got worse. I felt it in the soles of my feet, like the floor was tapping on my shoes. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to remain standing.

When I turned back to the room, the woman had risen to her hands and knees. Midian, behind her, leveled his Lugar at the back of her head.

"No!" I screamed.

He looked up as he pulled the trigger. The woman pitched forward, her skull split open. I dropped to my knees.

"You don't need to look at me like that," Midian said as he stepped over her body and toward the small man crumpled in the middle of the floor. The attacker had shards of the plate in his hair, his legs bent under him. His eyes were closed. I could see him breathing. "These aren't people. They're qliphoth. Shells. They're what's left after a rider's taken over."

"Please stop," I said.

Midian fired twice into the small man's head. I closed my eyes. The euphoria of the fight was gone, as if it had never been there. Tears ran down my cheeks, but I felt too sick to move. I heard Midian walk to the last man, the tall one I'd kicked.

"Don't," I breathed. "Please. Please don't."

The gun barked. My body spasmed. I doubled over, vomiting up the eggs and onions and brandy. I was crying with the same sense of illness, the same violence. Soft footsteps came toward me, and I was suddenly sure that he was going to kill me too. I put up a hand, thinking somehow I could push away the gun.

Midian knelt beside me. Skeletal hands slid under my arms, and he lifted me. Together, we stumbled toward the bathroom. I puked again as we passed the kitchen, but he kept pushing me on. Soon, I was on my knees in front of the toilet curled in fetal position. There was blood and sick on my sleeve. Midian sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching me collapse.

"Please," I said. "Please." I didn't even know what I meant by it.

"The first time's the worst, kid," he said in his industrial ruin of a voice. "Killing someone isn't like an action movie. You don't just go bang real loud and they fall down. It does something to you. I understand that."

My eyes were shut tight. I could feel my mouth open wide enough to ache at the jaw, like I was screaming. Only a whine came out. My heart felt as if something precious had died. Some tiny part of my mind, cool and observant, was surprised to see all the rest of me coming unhinged.

"They came in here, kid. They came after you. You did what you had to do. They weren't even human, no matter what they looked like. Remember that. They're just shells. All those folks were already dead."

For the first time, I wanted to believe him. All the bullshit about Eric and the Invisible College and unclean spirits. I wanted it all to be true. I wanted to believe it.

I remembered the woman's blue eyes. Whoever she was, she'd been a baby once. Her mother had held her in her arms. She'd had a first kiss. Someone had looked into those eyes with love. I saw her skull open under Midian's bullets.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe.

"Take your time," Midian said. "It's gonna be okay. Just take your time."

It wasn't okay for a very long time. It felt like food poisoning, or worse. But eventually my strength gave out a little, and the violence of my reactions calmed. Midian had left me alone, so I locked myself in the bathroom and took a long, cold shower. The water seemed to ground me and pull me back to myself. When I stepped out and picked up a towel, I felt fragile, but I could function.

In the apartment, I could hear Midian grunting and talking to himself. The sweet, harsh smell of his cigarettes covered anything else. I was grateful for that. I sat on the floor and dug through the puddle of my clothes until I found my cell. I looked at it for a long time before I could bring myself to make the call.

Aubrey picked up on the second ring.

"Jayn¨¦?" he said, pronouncing it wrong.

"Hey," I said. "I need to ask you something."

"Sure," he said. "Anything. What's up?"

I could hear something in the background. Voices. Traffic. The real world. I took a deep breath.

"What do you know about the Invisible College?"

There was a pause that lasted years.

"Oh, thank God," he said. "I was afraid Eric hadn't told you about any of it. I was going to bring it up when I got you from the airport, but I thought if he hadn't, I'd sound like a schizophrenic. Eric's murder. It was about Randolph Coin, wasn't it? Was he actually trying to take Coin on?"

I leaned forward, hunched over the cell. Mostly what I felt was relief. Even if it wasn't true, if it was all stories and deceptions and madness, at least there was someone I could talk to. I almost started crying again.

"Jayn¨¦? Are you there? Are you all right?"

"You remember how you said I should call if I needed any help?" I asked.

"Yes. Absolutely."

"I need help."

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