Shadow Duel (Prof Croft Book 9) by Brad Magnarella (ereader with android .txt) 📕

into deeper misfortune. In any case, I could strike Midtown College from my choices.

“Thanks for the warning. Would you guys mind if I stayed up here? I’m still pretty rattled, and I need to figure out my next move.”

And up here felt a lot safer than down in the streets. But maybe my trip to the shadow present was a blessing in disguise. If I was still here come morning, I could venture to the rundown version of my apartment and install the wards to prevent the perp from using it to circumvent my protections in the actual present.

“Got a name?” the man asked.

“Yeah, sorry—Ethan,” I said.

There was a manhunt on for me, and Everson was too uncommon to be throwing around.

“Gil,” he said, shaking my hand. He introduced me to the others, but with everything happening, I only half heard their names.

I followed them back to where they’d been sitting. The arrangement of seats gave them angles on every part of the rooftop. Gil pushed out an upturned tar bucket with a foot and nodded that it was mine. I sat beside him.

“Had much trouble here?” I asked.

“Nothing like the massacre two summers ago.”

The rest of the men murmured somberly.

“Massacre?”

“A werewolf got into the building and ravaged the fifth floor,” he said. “Wasn’t till Jerry from 212 arrived with a rifle full of silver buckshot that we were able to drive it out. They found its body the next day in Riverside, but the damage was done. Six dead from the attack. Nine mauled. The Sup Squad took them away for treatment, but you know what that means. So, basically fifteen dead.”

“The Sup Squad,” I echoed.

“They come armed to the teeth, but we learned the hard way they only show up after the fact. At least for shmoes like us. The trick is to never need them in the first place.”

“What else do you have running around here?”

Gil gave a hollow snort. “You name it. If it eats human flesh, blood, or soul, it’s got a home in the city.”

I shook my head. No wonder poor Ricki had looked so beaten down. I’d been considering whether it would be wise to try to locate my shadow self for help, but with all the supernatural threats here, there was no way he’d believe I was who I claimed to be. It had been hard enough in the time catch when the city was largely functional. I switched mental gears and decided to take a shot in the dark.

“Hey, did I read that Bear Goldburn was murdered?”

“Tech guy?” Gil nodded. “They found his body at a collision shop out in Brooklyn.”

I stiffened. “A collision shop?”

“Yeah, someone did a real job on him. Didn’t look like a sup attack either. Knifed out his kidneys and left him for dead.”

“And on the same day he was canned as CEO,” one of the men added.

I was too shocked to even nod. My scrying spell hadn’t misled me. It had captured Bear’s final moments—only it had been his shadow.

But why had the spell jumped tracks like that? And how had the actual Bear Goldburn turned up dead in his penthouse with his kidneys missing? The two Bears were independent entities. What happened to the shadow Bear shouldn’t have had any effect on the actual Bear. And yet, clearly, it had.

“Any suspects?” I ventured.

“Code red,” one of the men said in a lowered voice.

We all turned to where he was rising from his seat and aiming his rifle. Something large had climbed onto the rooftop and was stalking toward us.

22

The men spread apart and covered the incoming figure. It was dark and hulking, as if the night itself had taken form. Beneath a ridged back, multiple legs stalked forward, like a muscular version of a giant spider.

“Stay back,” Gil told me.

But I’d already drawn my cane into sword and staff. “Entrapolare,” I whispered.

Dull light glimmered, and the air around the creature hardened into an enclosure. The creature stopped and raised its front three legs. Except they weren’t legs, but canine heads that had been sniffing the rooftop. Three sets of eyes smoldered red.

“Holy fuck,” one of the men murmured.

Cerberus?

The heads erupted into a thunderous fit of barking. As the watch group opened fire, I reshaped my invocation to brace the creature from the sides. His giant paws raked up gravel and sheaves of tar paper while silver rounds tore through his body, sending out bursts of smoke. The Cerberus wasn’t flesh.

He also wasn’t succumbing to the attack.

Errant shots struck my magical restraint, making it wobble. With the next volley, the Cerberus wrenched free and sprang at us. A man shrieked as one of the heads jerked him from his feet, thrashed him savagely, and flung him from the rooftop. The fading scream was almost as bad as the thump and sudden silence. The remaining men backpedaled, one fumbling his reload, sending shells clattering over the rooftop.

The Cerberus sighted on him and leapt.

“Not this time,” I grunted, as he collided with a fresh shield. “Everyone inside!” I shouted.

The Cerberus scrambled to his feet among the spilled sparks. Whatever this being was, he was beyond the watch group’s means to put down. For the first time, they seemed to notice I was wielding a glowing sword and staff.

Gil squinted at me. “Ethan?”

“Inside!” I repeated.

The youngest-looking man didn’t need to be told again. He ran to the steel door of the stair tower, opened it, and waved anxiously for the others to follow. Three others backed toward him. I watched the Cerberus, expecting him to target them, but the eyes above his flaring nostrils remained fixed on me.

“C’mon, Gil!” one of the men called.

I looked over to find him standing beside me.

“I don’t know who you are,” he said, “but I’m not leaving you out here alone.”

“I appreciate that, but I sort of do this for a living. I’d rather you get yourself to safety.”

He didn’t budge. Both of us were watching the creature now. He was stalking