I screamed. As my heart slowed, I realized I had fallen asleep, and the sun was already setting. I struggled to a seated position on the futon and glanced at the painting. The dark line of figures was still there, but it was regular oil, not black ooze. I took a few deep breaths, grabbed my phone, and hit Speed Dial 2. I was relieved when Kylie picked up.
"Hey," I gasped. "It's me again. Things have somehow gotten worse. How soon can you get off work?"
"Leave work?" I could practically hear her scowling. "Astin, do you know how long it took to find a job in this city?"
"I know. Look, I wouldn't call unless it was really important. Is there any way you can get away from work? Any way at all?"
"I can take my break early, I guess. It'll raise eyebrows, but there's other people that can work the grill." She sighed. "You've got 30 minutes of my time. Make it count."
"Trust me," I said, eyeing the painting. "I will."
I snapped the phone closed and grabbed my keys and wallet. I hesitated, then flipped the painting around backwards. I got out the door and to my hatchback pretty quick.
When I got to Urban Burgz, I poked my head in to signal Kylie, then pounced on a rare unclaimed table outside. It wasn't long before she snuck out of the restaurant and dove into the seat across from me. She slid a basket over the table and set down a cup. The burger was still steaming. The fries looked even hotter. I stared until I realized it was dinner time, and I was starving. It was two burgers in one day, but I wasn't about to pass up free food.
"Looks like I owe you," I noted.
"Nobody's gonna notice. So, what's the four alarm fire?"
"The painting," I grimaced. "It's gotten worse."
"Define 'worse.'"
"I fell asleep on my futon without realizing it." I took a bite of my burger, yelped, then drained half my soda. I knew it was going to be blistering, and yet, I bit right into it. Maybe one day, I'd learn. "The painting came alive. My entire apartment was flooded with Taint. I drowned in it."
She took a moment to appreciate the seriousness of the situation by stealing a fry. "That's fucked up."
"Tell me about it. I'm scared this dream was precognitive, too. I mean, I'm already painting in my sleep. It's not exactly a huge leap."
"Have you told anyone else about it?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. I came straight here after I woke up. If things go as sideways as I think it will, we'll need Nemesis."
"Gee, glad to know you're worried about me."
"You know what I mean," I frowned. "I care what happens to you, Kylie. But, you're also the only one with a goddess of eternal whoop-ass in your head."
"Isn't there someone else you can call for this kind of stuff?" She ate more of my fries. I didn't really object. "What about your girlfriend? She's the one with all the sharp bits."
"Mary needs energy to fight, and feeding off me will only get her so far. Besides, she's not really trained for this."
She pointed at me with a fry. "Neither are you."
"You're kind of making my point for me."
"Ugh, fine. You still need to call Mary, though. Anne and Claudia, too. Whatever trouble we were already in, it just got bigger."
"I'm going to. I just need to figure out the best—" I stopped in mid-sentence, nearly choking on my food. That familiar feeling of an unseen ghost washed over me. I hunched down into my wings. "We're being watched."
"Who?" She peered at the line outside the door.
"Don't look!" I hissed. "Keep your voice down."
"You're sitting here with a giant pair of owl wings on your back, and you're telling me to be subtle?" She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Which one is it?"
I snuck a glance over my left wing and sized up the line. Human. Human. Elf. Demon. Wait—that one. I can smell him from here. "Tubby guy in the fedora and Hawaiian shirt."
"Eesh. Guess there's no fashion sense where they come from."
"Guess not." I rubbed my face. "Sorry, Kylie."
"Not as sorry as I'm gonna be." She sighed and retrieved her dark spectacles from her pocket. "I liked this job, Astin."
"I'm not going to get you fired," I insisted. "We'll find a way to make it work. Honest."
"Bullshit," she said, then slipped her glasses over her thin nose. Her entire posture changed. Her jaw set harder, and her face darkened.
"Twice in twenty four hours?" Kylie's normally sleepy tones were replaced with Nemesis' blunt growl. "The balls on them."
"He's just out in the open," I said, "like we wouldn't even notice. We haven't had anything this blatant in a long time."
"We need to do something about this, Feathers. We can't have a Consumed running around loose." She watched our mark slip out of line and around the block. "And now, you've spooked him. Nice work."
"Why is always my fault?" I pushed back my chair and stood.
"It's usually a safe assumption. You ready?"
"Ready as I'm going to be, Nem."
"Good," she nodded. "And stop calling me Nem."
•
I smell things others don't. The technical term is "Astral olfactory sense." In plainer terms, I can smell the spirit plane. I don't know why. What I do know is that evil has a very particular scent, and since I'm the only one who can smell it, I get to play bloodhound for a Greek goddess of vengeance. Trust me, it's even weirder than it sounds.
"The trail's definitely getting stronger," I noted, following the broken sidewalk away from the restaurant. "It should be close."
Nemesis glanced around for hidden threats. "I don't like this. We're walking into a trap."
"Tell me something I don't know." I got hit with a waft of stench, and I brought my hand up to keep my stomach's contents in their place. "Urp. Yeah, this is it."
Nemesis pivoted on her heel. In spite of the bustling restaurant around the corner, there was nothing but empty streets and sidewalk. I searched for the source of the smell and found a dark gap between two buildings. It formed a crude wind tunnel that was blasting stink all over the street. I peered through the alleyway's shadows, trying to find the source.
Oozing tentacles shot out of the alley, wrapping themselves around my neck. They yanked me violently off my feet and through the opening.
I beat my wings as hard as I could. It was enough to land on my feet, but not enough to avoid face-planting into a brick wall. The "man" ripped through his clothes as he bloated and bulged, revealing grey skin and a gaping maw where his stomach should be. As I watched, his head slowly tore itself apart down the middle. Black tar stuck to both sides as it exposed a flailing tongue and jagged teeth. The maw protruding from its torso snapped at the air, then shrieked with a horrid screech of metal on metal.
I'd like to say I had a pithy response, but what I remember saying was, "Fuck."
A machete suddenly burst through its chest, and Nemesis leapt onto its back. She clung to its neck like a bull rider, found a switchblade, and buried it into one of the thing's eyes. She then dodged three different bites from two sets of jaws on a very angry Consumed.
"Little help here?" she screamed, hanging on for dear life.
I spread my wings and reached deep inside. It was like trying to get a crappy car to turn over. C'mon, wings, glow, start glowing, glow goddammit before—
It fired a ball of ooze that hit me hard, putting me on my back. The ooze snarled and hurled itself at my face, trying to get in through whatever orifice it could find. It got a zap of white light for its troubles instead, and I smeared the leftover ash off my face. Meanwhile, Nemesis was ejected from the creature's back and tumbled gracefully over the pavement to her feet. I had no idea how she didn't break her neck, let alone any other bones. It was probably the same reason she could get a weapon whenever she wanted. Pays to be a goddess, I guess.
The creature took a few wet steps towards us before dipping its top head and screaming in that horrid grinding noise. In spite of the racket, no one had sounded any alarms or come to investigate. Where the Taint went, humans did not. It was a psychic defense mechanism they didn't even know they had... which meant we were on our own.
"Any ideas?" Nemesis asked.
I shrugged. "Keep him busy?"
"Great plan, MacArthur." She yanked a butterfly knife out of her back pocket and flipped it open. "Better get your shit revved up fast, or you're gonna have to explain to Kylie's roommate why her rent just doubled."
She clenched her knife in her teeth and sprung into action—literally. She jumped under a fire escape ladder, caught the bottom rung, and scaled it in place as it came down. She hopped up and squatted on the railing with perfect balance, snatched her knife out of her mouth, and whistled. The monster's stomach-maw twisted up towards her, then flinched. Tainted don't have a lot of emotions besides hunger, but they do feel pain, and a switchblade was still hanging out of its eye. Tentacles shot out of its upper mouth and tried to snag Nem's ankles. She slashed them away, then vaulted off the railing with a battle cry, aiming straight down the monster's gullet.
White light flooded through the alleyway, and Nemesis zipped through a statue of ash, impacting painfully with the ground. The remaining dust melted into the wind, leaving nothing behind but shredded clothing. I gasped for air and fell to my knees, wings still shimmering. My timing, as always, was impeccable.
Nemesis pulled herself up to her feet and staggered over to where I was. I could tell she was furious. I kept quiet until she had calmed down.
"You are the worst angel in existence," she finally declared.
Then, her posture slackened, and Kylie had to thrust out a hand to keep from falling over. She was disturbed, but not entirely surprised, to find herself a mess of bloody scrapes and bruises. She slumped down next to me, took out a bottle of ibuprofen from her pocket, and slammed four down dry.
•
Once we got our second wind, we went back to Urban Burgs to get Kylie bandaged and excused from work. It turns out she was dragged into an alleyway by a mugger, and I was there just in time to save her. I was as surprised as her manager. If I was going to be a hero, I would've appreciated a heads-up. On the way to my apartment, I stopped at a taco place and bought dinner for her. I mean, it was the least I could do.
Mary was already inside and studying the painting. When she heard us come in, she whirled with eyes white, ready to lay into me for going missing. She caught herself when she saw the shape Kylie and I were in.
"Jesus fucking Christ," she swore. "Where were you? What happened?"
Kylie shaded her eyes from the lights and winced in pain. "We picked up a spy. Nemesis and Astin had to put them down. Wow, this painting really is some messed up shit."
"A spy?" She furrowed her brows at me. "The Taint is doing spies now?"
"Apparently." I tossed my keys and wallet on the floor. One of these days, I needed to get a place to put them. "It gets better. They sent a Consumed."
"Fucking hell." She pulled out her phone and started punching numbers. "I'm calling Claudia right now."
"No need." Claudia was already resting on her cane in the doorway.
Mary put her phone down. "Okay, that's just spooky."
"Not really. Anne was wandering the Astral plane and saw a humongous energy spike. There's only one thing in world that causes a fireworks show like that, and it's Astin. I came as soon as I could. She's going to keep patrolling the city for abnormalities."
"You could just ask me," a siamese yawned as he nudged his way through the door. "I prowl corners of this city you noisy, hairless giants don't even know exist."
"Where the hell have you been?" I demanded. "It's been three weeks!"
"Scent marking. Negotiating territories." The cat flopped over on my floor and flailed a little. "I wouldn't expect a bird to understand."
"I'm not a bird."
"And I'm not really named Buddy." He narrowed his eyes. "Yet, here we are."
I pinched the bridge of my nose in annoyance. One thing I learned in the past year is that cats talk. Well, that's not technically accurate: they twitch whiskers, swish their tails a bit, and it kicks up Astral waves that can be translated to speech. As we're split between planes, Other can receive and understand them. And, as it turns out, most cats are dicks.
"Fine. Whatever." I shooed him further inside, then shut and locked the door before anyone else wandered in. "Okay, full disclosure before we get started. That thing in the corner flooded my apartment with Taint."
Everyone inched back.
"In a dream," I hastily corrected.
"That doesn't really make me feel any better," Mary said.
"Nor I." Claudia shook her head. "Your dream... this painting... that Consumed... whatever reprieve we bought last winter, it's over. The Taint is coming back."