Shifting Life

36. Tickers

Glass waited by the curb, as he said he would.

Veronica wondered why.

Her call had been short. "Craven is alive, but I can't make him stop bleeding."

Glass climbed into the limo.

For once the smell of stale tobacco he emitted was welcome. Anything to mask the wet blood smell inside.

Glass sat down next to Gabriel.

"I've tried everything I know," Veronica said. "I can't stop the bleeding more than this."

Glass looked at his stained shoes. He lifted the front sole. Dark thick blood dribbled back toward the floor. The entire floor area between the seat in front where the pale, still Craven lay sprawled and the seat where Veronica, Gabriel and Glass sat glistened with fat, rich blood.

Glass turned his focus on Craven.

Blood still trickled out of the wound in Craven's chest. The operative word was 'trickled'. Veronica had stemmed the massive gushing. It still didn't change the fact that Craven should have bled out an hour ago.

If he'd had a heart, Veronica thought with a shiver.

"He still alive. You saved him."

"Gabriel here saved him first."

"Thank you, Gabriel," Glass said.

Gabriel nodded without looking away from his screen. He'd been working research and analysis for Veronica long enough to know there were consequences in saving a life. For the savior, more than the saved. Saving a hated demon half-breed wouldn't get Gabriel fans in any realm.

"That's the dagger?" Glass said, nodding toward the long blade half submerged in Craven's blood on the limo's floor. "Shit. Is that the dagger I think it is?"

"The Vonandi dagger is supposed to be in the Visionary's collection, so yes. The blade that can stop the horsemen," said Veronica.

"How?" Glass asked. He wasn't asking about the dagger anymore.

"Craven threw it at the horseman's back," Gabriel said. "Next thing—"

"It was stuck in Craven's," Glass finished.

Silence fell.

"Shit!" Glass spat. "This is my fault. I told her. The message was Clyde better wear that coat. I could've told Craven, but he's such an ass."

He groaned.

Veronica saw Glass wipe his nose with the back of his hand in the window's reflection. He looked stretched thin, wiry turned brittle.

"Craven found out I'd been channeled. He pressed me about the message," said Glass. "I didn't tell him. He let me live."

There was a note of surprise in his voice.

"The numbers say the dagger should have trumped the mirror coat," Gabriel muttered. "For what it's worth."

"The thief wore the coat at the bridge. They formed a link, the bridge, the beast, the thief." Nev Craven's raspy voice barely carried. "The way they tapped the bridge of energy – some of it must be stored in the coat. Anyone wearing it will be untouchable. That coat will hold up a thousand years in hell."