I followed her to the door of Tukka’s cage. He waited patiently as Sanchez let him out. We followed her to the next cage. A moment later, Fenn and Cassie joined our entourage. Sanchez grabbed Fenn’s shirt and pushed him against some bars. “Where did the tear go in?” she asked.
“Left shoulder,” he said.
She produced a black military field knife, putting its edge up under his left tee shirt sleeve. She cut the sleeve up past the neck line, peeling the cloth away, baring his shoulder. Her fingers probed for a lump.
He said, “Hey, I’m sorry about before. I thought—”
“Shut-up,” she said.
“Long as you know it was nothing personal,” Fenn said. He was clearly uncomfortable with anyone taking a knife to him, no matter the reason.
Sanchez had a blood-thirsty grin on her lips that was far from reassuring. Her voice lilted, “Trust me.” She slammed him around so his face was framed by bars. I slid in beside him, my back to the bars, and my face near his.
His breath hissed out. Blood trickled down his back. He gripped the bars tightly, cussing beneath his breath as the knife tip probed inside the wound. His eyes locked on mine, as his nostrils flared, dragging in my scent.
Fenn needed a distraction. Our lips touched. The tension I’d been feeling dissolved. The butterflies in my stomach melted into warm, soft goo. His lips went from gentle to hard, demanding.
A moment later, the red crystal came out of him. Fenn sagged against the bars, as Sanchez slapped on a field dressing.
Fenn said, “If I knew a little field surgery was the way to your heart, I would have stabbed myself long ago.”
“Let me do it,” Onyx muttered.
Sanchez turned to Cassie. “Your turn.”
Cassie’s eyes flashed to red, the demon checking in.
Oh, crap! As a searing pain erupted, I grabbed at my pants pocket where I’d stashed the demon tears. I dug the crystals out, a sensation like scooping hot coals from a campfire. My fingers burned as the tears fell to the concrete, tinkling, bouncing. With the tears out of my pocket, the pain in my hip had dispersed. I looked at my hand. No damage there either. Weird.
Cassie’s voice emerged like a harsh wind, ratcheted down a full octave, “Free me,” the demon said. “Free me, and I cannot be used against you any more.”
Onyx pressed close to Cassie, his black eyes locking onto her crimson ones. He said, “Does the miko know we’re coming?”
Cassie’s eyes widened. Her brows shot up. The demon voice scaled higher. “I’m not going to tell her, but you had better hurry. She’s getting ready to bleed me to make more of her precious tears.”
“Okay,” I said, “but you better not be lying.”
Cassie smiled wider than I thought possible. “Would I do a thing like that?”
“Is hell hot?” Fenn said.
Cassie’s eyes lost their bloody glow, turning sapphire once more. She touched her head as if momentarily dizzy. “What just happened?”
“No time,” Sanchez said. “Where’s your tear?”
“Well, uh—”
“What’s her problem?” Sanchez asked.
I knelt by the fallen tears, poking them tentatively with a fingertip. They were cold. I thought I might still be able to use them. I looked up at Fenn, and pointed to his torn shirt. “Rip me off a piece,” I ordered.
“It’s embarrassing,” Cassie said.
“What’s embarrassing?” I took the piece of shirt, tied the tears up in it, and stood, holding the little bundle by its knot.
Cassie whispered something in Sanchez’s ear. She smothered a gawf. Cassie reddened in the face. Sanchez looked at the rest of us, her lips twitching in humor. She made a twirl with a finger pointed down. “All you guys—the fu dog too—turn around until I say so. You peek, you die.”
“Die hard,” Cassie said.
The guys did as asked, while I stared at Cassie with a what-the-hell expression plastered on my face.
Her eyes flared gold that edged into orange, deepening incrementally toward red. The demon was trying to take her over. He used her voice, “Not this one. She stays under my power, a surety for your cooperation in freeing me.”
Her body stayed human, but her face went foxy, bones melting, reforming with sharper angles. She developed a snout and sharp teeth. Ruddy fur bristled from her cheeks, spreading to forehead and chin. All pointy and fuzzy, her ears migrated to the top of her head. Her hands turned into paws with black claw tips. A red fox tail poked up out of her pants and flopped back down. Fortunately, she was wearing stretch pants that could handle the extra pressure.
She snarled and her eyes went back to brilliant gold as she fought back the demon’s remote-control possession.
“Not this time. I’m ready for you.” Cassie shot Sanchez a hard glare. “Do it now!”
Mom turned her back and dropped her pants. Apparently, she’d been hit by the demon tear in the butt. I choked on a sob that was part fear for Cassie and part laugh over such an impossible situation.
Sanchez used one hand to hold mom’s fox tail off to the side. The knife glinted, poised to stab an otherwise normal looking butt.
Cassie said, “I hope this doesn’t leave a scar.”
“Hold up,” Onyx said. “There’s a better way. His human form melted into dark shadow, impenetrable despite the overhead lights. He flowed closer, winding past Sanchez who tried to fend him off, only to have her hand and forearm slide right through him.
She shook her hand, flexed it. “Cold.”
The shadow wrapped Cassie, covering her like a garment bag. There was a brief flailing from inside the shadow, and Onyx separated from her, the demon tear in his hand. As Cassie pulled her clothing back into order, glaring at him, he shifted back to human form, his cocky grin in place. He handed me the red crystal. “Nothing to it,” he said, “when you’re a superior life form.”
Cassie’s face reflected a lack of gratitude and an abundance of icy rage. Her cocked fist streamed with orange flames as her aura flared. A growl escaped her as she hurled a blast of foxfire past Onyx’s nose.
Like living shadows of midnight blue, the kunoichi surged into our midst, suddenly just there. One of them went down screaming, having caught a face full of cold flame from Cassie.
For a split second, I’d wondered if Torrent and his men had managed to breach the barrier around the property, but no, I couldn’t get that lucky. These were ninja with demon red eyes. They were under the demon’s control.
TWENTY-SIX
MELEE: mey-ley, (n.) a fight where
combatants mingle in a confused mess.
Also see “BLOOD ORGY.”
Taliesina spoke from my inner shadows, He’s pissed we’re defying him.
I stuffed the tear in my pocket, and rolled my eyes. Ya think? Such a human reaction. Maybe there’s a limit to how many people the demon can fully operate.
Sanchez spun into a lunge, taking the stalled ninja off her feet, slamming her across the aisle against an empty cage. Sanchez had a Colt .45 holstered on one hip, but made no effort to draw the weapon. She used the knife in her hand to pierce the ninja’s stomach. The blade was pulled up and out, leaving a wound that spurted blood.
The necessity shocked me, until a ninja grabbed my shoulder, wheeling me into a palm strike that rocked my head, smashing my lips against my teeth. I tasted the sweet iron tang of blood as I stumbled back a step. The ninja closed in with a barrage of blows that drove me off my feet. My vision grayed at the edges as I looked up from the concrete floor.
The ninja lifted a knee, a prelude to kicking my head clean off, when she was snatched backward by her hood. She still fired off her kick, but it shot too high to connect.
Heart thudding, gasping for breath, I held my side, wondering if I’d cracked a rib. Enough adrenaline coursed through my bloodstream to make my pain distant and not yet real. Time would change that.
My vision cleared and I saw that it was Cassie who’d saved me. Her face was a s
tudy in fury; red, tight, a feral grin of anticipation on her face for the bloodshed to come.
Past her, the same expression was on Fenn’s face as he took on two ninja. His amber eyes had gone bright yellow. His lower face had reshaped, mixing coyote in with the human elements. He had a snout and a mouth bristling with large, pointed teeth. His hands had gone fuzzy, morphing into claws. With unnatural speed, he slashed through the kunoichi uniforms, furrowing the underlying skin and muscle, drawing blood and hisses of pain.
The center of the aisle cleared and I saw half a dozen ninja all over Tukka. They carried chain weapons with heavy steel bolts at one end. They were wrapping him up, hobbling his feet, and one ninja on his back used her links to choke him across the throat.
I’d had a little sleep, not enough to fully replenish my aura, but I had to do something. My hand speared out. Cold, orange foxfire burst from my hand, a long stream of it that shot down the hall, engulfing Tukka’s rider. She beat on herself in panic, thinking she’d been set on fire. She fell off Tukka, landing on his far side. I couldn’t see her any more.
Tukka looked at me with gratitude in his eyes. A huge, self-satisfied grin appeared as he floundered on his side, crushing the ninja.
Onyx reached Tukka, straddling him like someone on a mechanical bull. The prince’s hands devolved, becoming long, thin swords of shadow.
The surviving ninjas whirled their chains, putting whistles in the air. The lady ninja surrounded Onyx and Tukka, preparing to rush in from all sides.
Mom and Fenn were back in the center of the aisle, blocking my view. They were splattered with blood. None of it seemed their own. I looked over to ninja bodies ripped open, torn off limbs, laying where they’d dropped, dark red blood spreading on the floor, mirroring the overhead lights. Their mere human strength and skill hadn’t been enough.
Sanchez dropped beside me, probing my side with gentle fingers.
I ignored her, pointing Cassie and Fenn down the aisle. “Onyx and Tukka, help them.”
Cassie and Fenn turned from me and headed that way.
Sanchez ignored my suggestion, making sure I was in one piece. “I don’t think anything is actually broken, but try not to do anything too strenuous.”
“Like stay alive?” I asked her.
She didn’t answer, offering support as I got up and straightened my legs under me. Showing no emotion, her gaze took in the dead ninja. “They’ll be missed, soon. We gotta move!”
I heard a series of vicious blows, bodies falling, chains clattering to the concrete, then all was still—the kind of still you get when a lot of people are dead. I’d seen that last Halloween when the witches of ISIS went down under the claws and fangs of the hell-beast they’d summoned to earth. I hoped I never got used to this kind of thing.
Everyone surrounded me.
Fenn said, “Let’s blow this joint. The demon’s on his own.”
“But he’s been helping us,” Onyx said.
“How do you figure that?” Sanchez asked.
I wondered that myself.
Onyx said, “He didn’t send the ninja against us in spite. We’ve taken out the miko’s escort, which makes it easier on us escaping, too.”
I was impressed despite myself. Wow, the demon’s deeper than I thought.
Onyx shrugged at Cassie. “Your call.” He moved to my left.
Fenn moved to my right.
Free of his hobbles, Tukka brought up the rear, moving on pure determination and grit. A prisoner here, he’d been kept from the dreamscapes that fed his life force. Weak as he was, I didn’t look for him to be a lot of help. I said, “Tukka, you don’t need to stay with me. Crossover. From the ghost realm, you can easily reach dream-space and renew yourself.”
Grace come too?
“In a bit, I just need a little more time building my aura.”
“Tukka wait.”
I scowled at him. “Don’t be stubborn. Go!”
He looked at me, lilac eyes ablaze with the force of his will. A barely audible growl hung in his throat. “Tukka wait on Grace.”
I huffed in exasperation, and rolled my eyes. Males! “Fine, have it your own way.”
We moved out as quietly as possible. Both Fenn and Onyx put palms to my back, urging me along while offering encouragement. I don’t think they realized they were both doing it. Behind me, Tukka snickered softly beneath his breath.
Empty cages were arrayed on both sides. Up ahead, I saw the fence enclosing the demon’s concrete pit. The gate was wide open. There were no signs of more ninja.
We eased up to the bars, stared down the slope of the concrete bowl. The kanji written on the floor and ceiling had come to life; flame-bright lettering thinned the gloom, adding theatrical lighting to the miko. She had her back to us, a large red gemstone clutched in her left hand. She held the clump toward a bestial shape, a winged darkness that hung in the air, only partly in our world. The squirming creature seemed stuck at the edge of crossing over. Shadowy jaws gnashed at the miko. Charcoal claws rent the air, longing for her flesh.
The miko’s said, “Settle down, beast. You make this harder than it needs to be.”
His voice, dark as his soul, unfurled from nowhere, “I tire of such indignity. Release me, now!”
She tittered. “And you came so eagerly when I called you with an offering of blood. Now you give me such offerings. You will be here a long while. Make peace with your lot.”
The miko stepped boldly toward her captive, keeping the large stone between them. “Desist,” she cried.
As if steel hoops had been thrown around his body, his legs came together and his wings folded with a hard snap as his arms were crushed to his sides. He jerked in place, seething but powerless.
The miko’s right hand held a knife of black volcanic glass. The obsidian edge slashed across the demon shadow. His voice roared, slightly muffled as it filtered into our reality. From wounds across his chest and stomach, a frothy liquid splattered the concrete floor. The stuff bubbled and steamed.
The miko gestured with the jewel. “You may go now.”
The shadow thinned. Its limbs released, it clawed at the walls of space with savage fury, wanting to reach its tormentor.
She stamped her foot at his resistance. “You think you can defy me? Have you forgotten so soon what that will cost you?” She held aloft the crimson chunk. Electric-blue fire crawled over it like jagged worms.
The demon threw back his head and howled like the damned. Only the thinnest smudge remained as he bit off his scream. Raw, red hatred blazed from his eyes. He shot a last, demanding glance our way—a plea for help and a threat—and then was reclaimed by the ghost realm, still a prisoner in this place.
The miko now chanted in Japanese, gesturing with the rough crystal. The demon blood pooled on the concrete pulled itself into a little stubby tower, twisting, rising, wrung by unseen forces. Globs of the stuff broke free, spheres drifting like jewels on a phantom wind. Soon, all the blood lifted, leaving not even a smear on the concrete bowl and its glowing kanji. The dark spheres orbited the miko, drawn to her.
Her monotonous chanting picked up speed. The blood spheres streaked faster, pulling themselves apart. The smaller pieces stretched, becoming splinters. We were seeing the shaping of “demon tears.” Once hardened by the miko’s Shinto alchemy, she’d be equipped to enslave many more victims.
We can’t let that happen, Taliesina said.
I softly muttered, “No, we can’t.”
Eyeing the miko, Sanchez fingered the grip of her holstered .45.
Fenn caught the motion and then her gaze. “Take the shot,” he whispered.
Sanchez shook her head no, and whispered back, “We don’t need more ninjas down here, especially ones with guns.”
She and Cassie hurried toward the cage door.
Onyx took a more direct route, collapsing into a flat shadow that slithered between the bars, down the slope of the concrete floor. Impervious to the tears, it was probably best he went fir
st into the fray.
Loping along the bars, Fenn gave no thought to waiting for me either.
As Tukka and I hurried to catch up, I prayed the miko wouldn’t turn and notice we were nearly on her.
The demon tears orbiting the miko slowed, spiraling into a basket at her feet. As she bent to pick it up, Onyx rose immediately behind her, a black hooded shape like a cobra’s shadow poised to strike.
The miko spun, reaching into her robes. Her hand came out with paper charms. Black inked characters wiggled down them—a quick impression—as she flung them into Onyx. His blackness swallowed the papers, seized up, and shuddered to a stop. He quivered and lashed wildly, slapping the concrete, then stretched up to dust the ceiling. I think, if he’d had a mouth he might have screamed.
The miko ducked past him, heading for the cage door, only to be brought up short as Cassie and Sanchez raced inside, picking up momentum from the slanting floor. Fenn was right behind, until he leaped and vaulted their heads, all claws and fangs as he dropped toward the miko.
By this time I was just inside the cage, holding out a palm to keep Tukka at the doorway, a guard at our backs and a last resort.
He said, Grace—
“Listen to you wheeze. You’re all done in. You can’t help right now. Wait here. I mean it.” I gave him that hard glare a girl uses when she’s not giving a male any wiggle room.
He subsided in silence, but his eyes blazed reproach.
I turned to see a handful of demon tears rise from the basket like miniature missiles.
Fenn flailed midair, somehow avoiding the first barrage which darted on toward Cassie and Sanchez. Her hands generating a green-gold glow, Cassie deflected the shards, leaving a miniature aurora borealis of foxfire in the air. The slivers shot away, carried by momentum, taking a wide turn along the bars.
Fenn fell awkwardly. I heard him curse. He regained his feet, but put little weight on his left ankle.
Cassie called out to me. “Stay back. We’ll deal with this.”
Another handful of demon tears rose from the basket, as the miko’s cold, delicate laughter shivered my spine.
Tears and Shadow (kitsune series) Page 20
