David walked down the empty sidewalk, his hands pushed deep into his coat pockets.
"Company," Hugo's voice crackled in his earpiece. "Coming fast. Left intersection."
David stopped. He turned his body slightly toward the corner and waited.
Heavy boots hit the pavement. The footfalls were too loud, the weight of them vibrating faintly through the concrete.
A figure rounded the corner and stopped twenty feet away.
Kai. The black raincoat stretched tight across his chest and shoulders. He stood massive and still in the center of the pavement, the streetlamp catching his face and the crimson reflection in his eyes.
Neither of them moved.
David looked him over the way a mechanic looks at a running engine. Kai held his gaze. A long moment passed.
He thought about the family. The faces.
His fists slowly uncurled.
"I need to be stronger," he said.
David said nothing. He turned and walked. "Greyman," he said. "That's your name now. Keep up."
He pulled his hand from his coat pocket. His palm was wet.
——
The bathroom was too small.
Daniel sat on the edge of the porcelain tub, staring at the floor tiles. The tactical jacket he'd taken off the dead merc was crusted with dried blood, but he didn't take it off. He didn't want to see what was underneath.
Footsteps hurried down the narrow hallway. A frantic knock rattled the thin wooden door.
"Daniel?" His mother's voice was sharp with panic. She rattled the knob. "Danny, unlock the door. You didn't come home last night. I was going to call the police—"
"Don't."
The word rumbled out of him. It didn't sound like him at all.
The silence on the other side of the door was heavy.
"Danny?" she whispered.
He closed his eyes. He couldn't hide in here forever. Every second he made her wait was just torturing her more. He stood up, his head nearly brushing the ceiling, and reached for the door. His massive, ash-white fingers fumbled clumsily with the small brass lock.
Click.
He pulled the door open.
His mother stood in the hallway, clutching her phone. She looked up. She had to tilt her head back to see his face.
Daniel froze. He waited for the scream. He waited for her to back away from the dead-pale skin, the glowing crimson eyes looking down at her.
Her breath hitched. Her eyes darted over the bloodstained jacket, the unnatural width of his shoulders, and finally settled on his eyes. The phone slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the hardwood floor.
"Mom, I—" Daniel started, his grating voice trembling.
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Daniel went completely stiff. He kept his heavy hands raised in the air, terrified that if he hugged her back, his new muscles would crush her ribs. She pressed her face into his chest, her hands gripping the thick, dirty fabric of his jacket. She was shaking violently.
"It's okay," she breathed, her voice cracking "You're home. It's okay."
She didn't ask about his eyes. She didn't ask about the blood. She just closed her eyes and held onto him tighter.
——
David unlocked his apartment door. Kai had to turn his shoulders sideways and duck his head to clear the frame. His massive body made the small living room feel suffocating.
David hung his coat and walked to the kitchen counter. "How are you holding up?"
Kai stood in the center of the room, eyes on the floor. "Hungry." He was quiet for a moment. "And every scent in this city hits me at once."
"What else?"
He flexed his hands, joints cracking. "I have to keep moving. Around forty minutes before the muscles start cramping." A pause. "And if I go too long without eating—" He stopped. "The judgment goes first. After that there's nothing left."
"And the boy?"
Kai went rigid.
He hadn't mentioned Daniel. He opened his mouth and closed it again.
"He ran," Kai said. "I told him he couldn't go home. I don't know where he is."
"Can you track him?"
Kai closed his eyes and took a slow breath through his nose. Then he shook his head. "The rain washed everything out."
David turned to the sink and washed his hands. "Then we're done for now."
Kai didn't move.
"You want more from me," David said, not looking back, "bring me something useful first. Then come find me."
Kai stared at his back. He dipped his head once, barely. Then he pulled the door open and stepped out into the cold stairwell.
The deadbolt clicked shut.
Silence settled over the apartment. Then, a sharp clack from the kitchen window.
The metal latch turned from the outside. The frame slid up just enough for a massive black shape to force its way through. Hugo's talons scraped for purchase as he landed; he caught himself against the backsplash and shook hard, sending a spray of freezing rain across the linoleum and up the side of David's arm.
David pulled a paper towel from the roll, dragged it down his forearm, then used the same towel to wipe down the counter.
"Learn to wipe your feet," he said, dropping it into the trash.
Hugo ignored him, aggressively ruffling his damp feathers. "Christ," the raven rasped. "Don't ever leave me alone in a room with him. Just breathing the same air as that guy sets off every prey instinct I've got. Feels like he could accidentally crush my skull just by shifting his weight."
"He's stable," David said, opening the fridge. "And he knows it."
"For now." Hugo's three eyes blinked, not quite in unison. "What about the secondary subject? The kid."
David pulled a plastic container of raw meat from the lower drawer. He stared at it for a moment, his thumb pressing once against the lid.
"He'll figure out what he is," David said, setting the meat down. "Or he won't."