by P. S. Newman
Hiding her in my room after she killed the iguana was short-sighted. I should have opened the front gate and told her to run. Maybe she would have joined up with the other Lassie shade I set free last week. But once she was in my room, she was trapped. C. called E., of course, and that was that.
Neither of them suspects anything. Still. They can’t see beyond the scared teenager. It helps me keep these experiments to myself, but sometimes I wish… I don’t know what I wish.
No more fear. That is my greatest wish.
Conclusion and Outlook:
I accomplished my primary goals today:
1. creating a specific shade and
2. being able to influence its actions, like I’m able to with E..
The hiccup with the iguana could have been avoided if I hadn’t fallen all the way asleep. I wish all books on lucid dreaming weren’t banned; it would be so much easier to have some sort of guidelines based on solid research.
I didn’t have enough time to figure out how much influence I really had over the Lassie shade. How far would I have been able to control her? Hopefully, I can find out next time.
The movie-angle seems to be working. Tonight, I’ll try for Bagheera. I’ll have to figure out a way to watch The Jungle Book without C. knowing or she’ll want to watch it with me. I just want to watch the parts with Bagheera in them. Those should do the trick.
CHAPTER FIVE
A nightmare stood on Rodeo Drive. With its heavily muscled neck, the square head, and powerful jaw, it might have been mistaken for a real dog. A giant mastiff perhaps. But the eyes gave it away. I felt the heat of their ruby glow fixed on me, as if the creature knew I had come to eliminate it. No natural animal's eyes shone from within, like windows into a volcano.
“Hellhound,” Aunt Vy named it, mirroring my thoughts. From its dreamer’s description over the phone, I'd been hoping it was one of the dumb, one-purpose kind of shades - easy to approach and eliminate. Not many shades had the intelligence or self-preservation to run from a shade hunter decked out with an assortment of weapons. But it was clear from the way this creature watched me that it considered me a threat. It wouldn't stand still while I laid my hands on it and unmade it.
“This one’s going to fight,” Aunt Vy agreed, delighted at the prospect of bloodshed.
"Fine." Like my sword, I loved a good fight. I rolled my shoulders to loosen up and flipped my long dark braid behind me. "The hard way it is."
I drew Aunt Vy from the sheath across my back. Her blade pulsed, growing a couple of inches in anticipation, edges turning so sharp they would slice through bone in a whisper second. She sighed in pleasure and settled into my hands like an extension of my arms.
The hellhound bared its fangs with a rumbling growl, eyes fixed on my gleaming blade. Only cobblestones, early morning sunlight, and silence separated us. Thankfully, it was too early for the boutiques to be open. The shoppers wouldn’t start rolling in for another two hours at least. I didn’t have to worry much about people becoming collateral damage, which made my job a whole lot easier.
I lifted Aunt Vy into attack stance and walked towards the shade. The growl turned into a vicious snarl. Spittle flew as the beast snapped its jaws. I stared back at it, unflinching. Come and get me, dream spawn.
A ridge of red-glowing spikes snapped up on the beast's spine. The hellhound broke into a run, charging straight at me. I strode forward, staring into its murderous eyes.
Before it got close enough for me to swing my sword, it launched itself into the air and shot towards me like a missile. I sidestepped and slashed Vy upwards. The beast twisted in midair as if the laws of physics didn't apply to it, evading the blade by a hair's breadth. It flew past me and thudded to the ground. Sparks flew from red-tipped claws. Muscles bulged on its haunches as it spun and leaped again. I dropped into a crouch and snapped my sword up. Blood sprayed as Aunt Vy’s tip sliced the beast open from chest to belly. She screamed a curdling battle cry only I could hear as the beast’s hot blood spilled over her hungry blade.
The shade dropped to the ground, deadweight. The red spikes on its back withered and the infernal glow in its eyes sputtered and died. Gotcha!
A howl froze my triumph. I faced the end of the empty street. No shade. I scanned the area, feeling Aunt Vy squirm in my hands in anticipation of more prey.
“We are here!” she screamed. “Come and get us!” The taste of the first hellhound’s blood had been just that for her - a taste, a teaser, a stoker of hunger.
My sword’s fervent prayer was answered by another howl. A second beast bounded into view, jolting to a stop when it saw me. A streak of light crackled over its hide, coursing down the length of its body like a bolt of electricity. The bolt leaped off the beast's skin and zapped a potted zinnia decorating the side of the road. The flower disintegrated in a puff of smoke and the terracotta pot cracked, spilling charred earth onto the cobbles.
Okiday. Better not get in range of that deadly little trick.
Electro-Hound growled and lowered its head, a challenge in its eyes. I raised Aunt Vy, who squirmed in my hands.
“Come and get us!” she repeated.
A sound reached my ears. Claws clicking on stone. Lots of claws. Electro-Hound’s snarl turned into a bark that whipped through the air. The clicking sounds quickened and my heart joined them, beating a wild staccato against my ribs. Please don't let there be—
A pack of hellhounds charged around the corner of a building. They raced up to the one facing me and stopped beside it, forming a wall of glowing red eyes and gleaming fangs. There were at least fifteen of them. I cursed my client who hadn't been honest about the extent of his nightmare. He should have told me there was a whole pack. Too many for a single shade hunter to eliminate. I may be the best in the biz, but that didn't mean I could win against such overwhelming odds.
If only Greyson were here.
“Focus, child!”
Spikes, horns, or scales wreathed in flames burst from the hounds' bodies. I shoved my wishful thoughts down into the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind and grabbed a smoke grenade off my belt. I pulled the pin and tossed it at the pack’s feet. A hound with a flaming set of horns on its head tried to snatch it out of the air as if to play. It reared back when smoke poured out and curled around its nose. The beasts disappeared in a stream of dense fog. I turned and ran, ignoring Aunt Vy’s outraged bellow of “coward!” at my undignified exit. This was a job for at least two teams, not one lone shade hunter.
The smoke grenade bought me a few precious seconds, though not as many as I'd hoped. I glanced over my shoulder when I was halfway to the van. Hellhounds burst through the roiling smoke, chasing me. The horned one lowered its head, ready to ram me like a bull. I ran harder, wishing I'd brought more weapons; a real grenade, or even a shotgun - anything to keep these beasts at a distance. For once, my disdain of firearms was about to bite me in the asterisk. Literally.
I reached the end of the pedestrian zone and ran onto the street, heading left to where my van was parked halfway on the pavement. Or should have been parked.
The spot where I'd left it was empty.
I stopped dead in my tracks. No sane person would steal a shade hunter's vehicle, no matter how bad the neighborhood. Towing companies wouldn't touch them. A hunter might get a fine for parking in a restricted zone, but nobody would ever move a vehicle with the green lights on top and the hunter registration plaque in the window unless an absolute emergency required it to be moved. Only a shade would dare.
I'd gotten my van hijacked by a shade. The irony was going to kill me.
I ran on down the street, ignoring Aunt Vy’s screams to face my foe. I had to find a place to lock myself in and call for backup from the Somni Order, much as I hated to do so.
The patter of the hellhounds’ paws thundered closer. Their excited pants rang in my ears. A rust-patched door to my left stood ajar. I made a sharp turn and ran inside. Fangs clamped down on empty air behind me. I slammed the door an
d kept running, gaining three steps before the door burst into flames and melted. The pack spilled through the opening, their burning hides illuminating the long hallway ahead of me. Here, only one or two hounds could come at me simultaneously, but I also couldn't swing my sword with full efficiency. More doors lay on both sides of the hallway, but I didn't try any of them. If they were locked, I would lose the little lead I had.
The hallway widened and a door loomed ahead of me. It stood open, letting sunlight stream onto the marble floor. I ran through it and found myself on a round plaza, surrounded by giant poplars. In the center of the plaza stood a gazebo, its delicate ironwork patterns lit up by the morning sun, beckoning me to make my stand there.
It had served for that very purpose once before - this was where Aunt Vy and I had manifested from Bella’s dream and faced down the giant monster shade that had popped into existence right alongside us. Talk about déjà vu. But how was this possible? I couldn’t have run all the way here from Rodeo Drive through a single building. This plaza was at least ten miles awa—
Fangs closed on my calf. Fire coursed up my leg. I swiped Aunt Vy behind me, slicing into the hound's muzzle. My bloodthirsty sword roared in triumph. The hellhound yelped and pulled back, giving me enough space to charge onto the gazebo. The pack of hounds spilled around its sides like a flaming tide, surrounding it.
One of them leaped onto the thin railing. The metal creaked under its weight. The beast balanced on the thin foothold as if it were solid ground, its eyes on a height with mine. A ruff of red spikes flared around its neck and chest.
Five more jumped onto the railing, one for each segment of the gazebo. Two trotted onto the steps leading into it. At least a dozen more stood behind the first circle, salivating for a chance to sink their teeth into me. I was so dead.
I drew my wakizashi, a katana’s shorter companion sword, from the second sheath on my back. It was a perfectly balanced and razor-sharp blade - made by human hands, not manifested through a dream - that felt almost as much as an extension of my arm as Aunt Vy did. I didn’t use it often outside of the training ring, but right now the odds were stacked high against me and I’d need all the blade I could get.
The hellhounds watched me, murderous intent stretching their canine faces into fang-flashing grins. In theory, all I had to do was reach out and touch them, work my shade mojo, and they would disappear. But those flames writhing over their hides would burn my skin and the fangs would bite off my hand. My favored approach was out of the question.
They leaped at me in quick succession, one after the other. I twisted, spun, parried and sliced. Blood flowed. My blades sang through the air, extinguishing lives and flames until seven hellhounds lay dead at my feet.
Aunt Vy howled in triumph, but it wasn't over. Seven more hounds leaped onto the banister and prowled up the steps. They could only come at me one wave at a time. But the ground was slippery with blood, littered with bodies. I'd have to watch where I stepped, but I could do this again. I had to do this again. Where was Greyson when I needed him?
The hellhounds ducked, their muscles bulging, ready to leap. Not a twitch of muscle gave away which one would attack first.
A circle of hounds sailed over the heads of their brethren on the banister. In the second it took me to understand that the ones from the back row were attacking, they were on top of me. Three-hundred pounds of muscle slammed into my back. The breath was driven out of my lungs as I crashed to the ground like a stone. My right arm went numb. I lost my grip on Aunt Vy but somehow managed to hold on to the wakizashi. Claws sliced my shoulders. Fangs snapped for my neck. Flames licked over my skin, singed my hair. I tried to roll to my feet, but there was nowhere to roll to. I was surrounded by a forest of claws and a swarm of snapping fangs. Above me, the sky seemed to burn.
A gigantic paw pinned the wakizashi to the ground. I looked up into three demonic heads snaking towards me from disproportionately long necks. They licked their lips, hot spittle dripping on my face. All three heads originated from the same set of shoulders.
"Elysia!" The voice reached me from far away. I shook it off. My desperate mind was playing tricks on me. Nobody called me 'Elysia' anymore.
Except I wasn't the only one who heard the call. Twenty pairs of glowing eyes flashed towards it, momentarily distracted. I didn't let myself look, only react. Ignoring the feeling prickling back into my right arm like hot needles, I pulled a small knife from my belt and buried it, blade-first, in the paw pinning my wakizashi to the ground. The three-headed beast twisted backward with a triple-voiced yelp of pain. The blade slipped free. I swung it in a protective arc around my head, expecting the hounds to attack as soon as they realized I was once again weaponized. But their attention was no longer on me.
Neither was Aunt Vy’s. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”
A man strode across the plaza like a Viking of old. Six feet tall, built like a bear, with long blond hair falling down his back in a loose braid. Blue eyes pierced the scene. Gun-metal-gray armor clung to his body like a second skin. He held a saber in his right hand and a dagger in his left, the former a blur as he spun it in a circle at his side. The hounds and I watched, riveted.
His eyes locked with mine. "This isn't a good place to make a stand, Zee. I taught you better than that."
Zee. The strength left my limbs. If I hadn't already been crouching, I would have sunk straight to the ground. Nobody called me Zee, except... "Grey? How?"
My voice snapped the hounds out of their stupor. A chorus of growls rose from their throats. The flames on their bodies burst into a frenzy.
“Move!” Aunt Vy screamed from where she lay on the ground four feet away. But it was Greyson’s roar of "Get up!" that made my body stand as if pulled by strings. I didn’t understand - how could he be here? - but his command made me focus on the more immediate problem of stopping the hellhounds from ripping me to shreds.
The hounds split up and attacked, forming two separate rings around Greyson and me. I spun and thrust, ducked and killed, all the while inching closer to Greyson. I even managed to pick up Aunt Vy from where I'd dropped her.
“Let me taste their blood!” she screamed as I kept slicing and dicing, taking another step towards Greyson, and another. The closer Greyson and I got, the harder it became for the hounds to slip through our defenses. Our fight centers merged, back to back, forming a single nucleus. It felt so right, so true, so normal, to be fighting side by side with him again. Happiness spread through me even as we maimed and killed. It wasn’t important how he got here, just that he was here.
"Nice of you to join the party," I called over the fray as I parried, slashed and thrust.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world."
Sidestep, slice, duck. "I'd rather be on a beach somewhere."
He grinned. "You have no sense of adventure."
Pivot, hack, parry.
"Why didn't you invite me to this shindig?" he yelled.
Because you’re not real. I didn't get a chance to form the words. A beast slipped past me; Electro-Hound. I swung Vy, aiming for its neck, but a spark snapped from the hound to the blade before it connected. My body seized as electric fire coursed through me. I couldn’t scream, but Vy did it for both of us. The current broke off and I slumped to my knees, Aunt Vy sliding from my suddenly weak fingers to clatter to the ground.
The beast charged past me and towards Greyson who was fighting off three other hellhounds. He was trusting me to watch his back.
This is going to hurt. I surged to my feet and tackled Electro-Hound from behind. A lightning bolt of fire screamed over me, through me. My muscles seized, locking my arms around the hound's body like a vise. We went down. The hound spilled out of my grasp, but its fire wasn’t doused. Flames danced across my skin, surprisingly cool. They writhed over my hands and licked my face without causing pain. It was such a pretty sight.
"Zee!" Greyson's bellow jumped straight into my soul. I looked up and saw him through the flames. The expressi
on on his face was pure horror. He killed a charging beast with a swoop of his saber. More hounds converged on Greyson with angry growls, but he threw himself on top of me. His big body rocked under the barrage of fangs, claws and flaming hounds.
A broad muzzle clamped onto his upper arm. He grabbed the beast's nose with his free hand. Flames from the black hide licked between his fingers, but he held on. Light flashed from his hand, enveloping the hound. Its solid form wavered, turned insubstantial like a thick fog. Greyson's fist closed on air as the beast disappeared, banished to the dreamscape— no, he must have phazed it. The dreamscape didn’t exist in the real world.
Things were starting to get hazy, so I focused on the thing that felt most real: Greyson. His fingers should have been burned to a crisp after grabbing the hellhound’s nose, but there were only a few red welts. I glanced at his arm where the hound had bitten him. Beneath the charred holes in the fabric of the armored suit, Greyson’s skin was unmarred by either fangs or fire. Just like mine. Maybe the hellhounds’ flames couldn’t hurt us, after all.
Yet horror pinched his face as he looked down at me. "Zee." His voice held a desperate pitch I'd never heard from him. I wanted to tell him that it was okay, that the flames hadn't hurt me. I held up my hand to show him.
Skin and flesh peeled off my bones like old wallpaper.
As if I had to see it before I could feel it, the pain sucker-punched me. I screamed in agony. Light tore across the sky, across the world, obliterating all and—
-- I was awake and screaming in my bed.
