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“Yeah,” Sterling said. “The bitching and moaning was really getting to me.”
“Now. To the Codex.” Carver scanned the room, pointing to a door at the far end of the hall. “There. The three of you best be on your guard. I don’t sense anything beyond the artifact, but as we’ve seen, these idiots are just full of surprises.”
It took a while for me to realize that my hand was slowly making its way to the flap of my backpack. He said to be careful, and judging from what we’d seen out here, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to think that the Viridian Dawn had other, more exotic defenses in place. Hell, the door could have been warded, for all we knew.
Without warning, Sterling smashed his shoulder into the door, breaking it into so many shattered fragments. Gil groaned.
“What the hell, man?” I hissed.
“Elegant as always,” Carver sighed, drifting languidly in the wake of splinters and Sterling’s palpable arrogance.
Maybe I expected another room of people, except that our boys would have warned us with their keen senses. Or maybe I expected the room to be filled with trip wires attached to grenades and explosives, or whatever the mystical equivalent of that was. Fireball traps, if these people played by the same rules as the Lorica. The last thing I expected was a boy huddling in the corner of what looked like a shabby bedroom.
Who knows when I’ll ever get used to his ridiculous speed, but Sterling streaked to the boy in a flash. He had the kid cornered, clutching him by the throat. Sterling bared his teeth and snarled. His lips were still wet with blood.
“Where’s the Codex?”
“Get the fuck off me. I – I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I was inclined to believe the kid. His eyes were wide with terror, but he was making a spirited attempt to fight Sterling off. Knowing the vampire’s strength, that was like beating a steel girder with limp spaghetti.
Carver raised a hand, his rings glowing a menacing umber in the darkness. “Sterling. Put him down.”
“So he can defend himself like those morons we beat up, or run away like their master did? Not a chance. We came for the Codex, and we aren’t leaving without it.”
“I said put him down,” Carver said, very softly, his voice lined with menace. He extended a finger. “That’s what we came for.”
I followed the line of Carver’s finger. He was pointing at the boy.
The Genesis Codex was a human boy.
Chapter 17
“You mean inside, him, right?” Sterling lifted the boy to his feet by the collar. “I’ll cut it out of him.”
“You idiot,” Carver snarled. “I said what I said. The boy is the Codex.”
I scratched the back of my neck. What the hell was going on? “So you’re saying he’s an artifact?”
“He isn’t an artifact, you moron,” Carver hissed. “Clearly the Viridian Dawn perpetuated that rumor to obfuscate the fact that he was a mage all along.”
Ooh. Carver was breaking out the big words. He was either pissed, or excited. Maybe both. I knew it was time to bite my tongue. But you know me. When do I ever shut up?
“But you’re like one of the Eyes at the Lorica,” I said. “Hell, that’s what your fake eye is for, isn’t it? The one you gave to Amaterasu, and the replacement you’re wearing now? And you couldn’t sense him at all?”
“I couldn’t,” Carver muttered, but it was clear that this news wasn’t distressing to him. If anything, he seemed fascinated.
“And between all the magic-sniffing noses and eyes and shit between us, none of you picked up on it?”
Gil shook his head. “Nothing. It’s like he wasn’t here.” Sterling shook his head as well, still pinning the kid to the wall with one hand.
“They did something to the room,” the boy said. “Someone mentioned something about wards. They made it so no one could find me.”
Carver intoned a single phrase. A globe of light flickered into existence, allowing the boy to see the four of us at last. He scrabbled against the wall, his eyes shifting, alternately defiant and frightened.
“Then they’ve held you here this whole time?” Carver’s voice was gentle, and calming.
The boy nodded. “Yes. Deirdre was the one who found me. Deirdre Calloway. She said she would keep me safe. But all they’ve done was keep me locked up.”
