Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,54
asked after catching me up as I stopped at the front entrance to the White House and pushed open the door slightly.
“The president had eyes of fire,” I said. “Heather told me. Her husband had eyes of fire, and she thought she saw something beneath his face.”
“Oh shit,” Roberto said. “That can’t be good.”
“What has eyes of fire?” Jinayca asked.
“Goddamn shape-shifter—and there’s only one I know working with Avalon,” I said, stepping inside the White House to find two dead Secret Service agents on the floor beyond. Their throats had been torn out.
“Damn it,” Roberto said, drawing his gun from his holster.
Five Secret Service agents left a nearby room and were soon shouted at to stand down by Roberto.
“Someone is in here,” Roberto said. “Someone killed these two agents. Have you seen them?”
All five agents shook their heads.
“Have you all been together long?” Jinayca asked.
“Jerry here just arrived,” a young man said, pointing to Jerry, a heavyset individual who looked a lot like one of the dead agents.
Jerry smiled. His hand turned into a claw, and he grabbed the nearest agent and threw him at us. He collided with Jinayca and Roberto as Jerry cut the throat of another agent with fingers that were now long and bony, before he set off up the stairs, taking them three at a time.
I gave chase, and Jerry ran into a room and jumped out of the window, crashing through the glass before falling the thirty feet to the rear of the White House. I followed suit, using air magic to land, as Jerry doubled back into the White House through another window.
“Goddamn it,” I shouted, jumping back into the building, where I found two dead Secret Service men, one missing his head. It had been cut off in one smooth motion.
I blasted the door to the room with air magic, and it tore apart, ricocheting around the hallway beyond.
I sprinted out into the hallway to see a shape vanish through an open doorway beyond. I had no idea where I was inside the White House, as I’d been turned around, but I followed the shape into a small office.
At the far end, next to the door of an adjoining room, was a woman. She had bony, clawlike hands and dark skin, and her eyes blazed red and orange, as if there were two tiny furnaces in her skull. She opened her mouth, revealing dozens of piranha-like teeth, and flicked a long red tongue over them.
“We haven’t officially met,” I said. “I assume you’re Lamashtu.”
Lamashtu smiled, which was even more terrifying than when she hadn’t been. “My reputation precedes me, as does yours, Nathaniel Garrett.”
“You’ve been masquerading as the president,” I said.
She nodded. “For a few weeks now.”
“Where is he?”
“I was hungry,” Lamashtu said softly, her voice like the purr of a cat.
“You didn’t need to eat him.”
“No, but I wanted to,” Lamashtu said. “No evidence of him being missing. Gawain offered to bury him in the basement or incinerate him, but waste not, want not.”
“You can’t escape,” I said.
“Now, that’s not true,” Lamashtu said with another smile. “Be seeing you soon.”
She tossed a hand grenade in my direction, and I wrapped myself in a shield of air as she burst through the door before the explosion.
I ran after her as quickly as possible, but all I found was the decapitated head of the woman she’d killed earlier. I cursed myself for not bringing a comm unit with me and noticed that the drawer to the large wooden desk was open.
I walked over and checked, only to find a small wooden bracelet on the floor. There were runes burned into it that were slowly fading.
Jinayca, Roberto, and a dozen armed men and women burst through the door a few moments later.
“Lamashtu,” I said, tossing the bracelet to Jinayca. “She was heading here to find that. A portable realm gate bracelet. I’m going to guess that whoever worked in this office was working for Avalon. Find them; find out where that bracelet led to.”
I walked toward the exit and stopped. “President Reed is dead,” I said, to several gasps. “Lamashtu has been playing him for a few weeks now. Gawain knows about it.”
“Where is his body?” one of the Secret Service agents asked.
“She ate him,” I told the young man. “When you tell Heather, I’ll leave it up to you whether or not she needs to hear that bit.”