Using Shaun’s voice, the demon whispered to me, “What do you think you are doing?”
A shudder went through me as he licked my ear nibbled. If it had just been Shaun I wouldn’t have minded, but with the demon in control, I was half-afraid he might take a bite outta me.
“Wocky?” I said.
He pulled his face to where we stared eye-to-eye. One of Shaun’s eyebrows arched. His red glowing eyes pulled with a force that sought to engulf my thoughts. He said, “Hmmm?”
I kissed him, slowly, savoring the taste and smell of Shaun. These hadn’t changed just because the demon was running him on autopilot while flailing about inside the miko too. I pulled back a little, trying to see Shaun’s aura. It glimmered around him, the colors distorted to a bruised blue due to the demon oppression.
Shaun’s lips stretched out in the demon’s over-wide smile. His arms relaxed slightly. “Ah, you missed me.”
My smile was one of genuine delight as I inhaled Shaun’s life force, the same as I’d done to Fenn. I was stealing in a sense, but necessary I thought.
The demon snarled. “What are you … doing…?”
Shaun’s eyes closed. He sagged against me, his arms dropping away. Still gripping the red crystal, I settled that arm around his waist. My free hand caught the back of his jacket, anchoring him against me as I pulled on the weave of space, crossing over to the ghostly side of the veil. A small tease of nausea went through me. Gravity thinned. The concrete went ash gray, but the magic writing stayed ghost-green. Around my body, my usual orange aura was a dark red with brighter flame tips of translucent yellow. Also, the haze was heavier, wavering away from me for a good eighteen inches. Just as I got used to the change, my aura dimmed to normal. The foxfire sluiced down my body, pooling around my feet where huge flames curled like a cluster of fox tails. In my arms, Shaun’s dead weight lessened. He started to rise. I started to rise. The foxfire around my feet was lifting us both.
So cool. I can fly!
Still smothered by Onyx, the demon’s frenzied struggles were gaining force. He’d extended his wings from the miko’s dead body and flapped them furiously. The wings were coated with Onyx’s shadow too, but that didn’t hinder their function. The demon was in the air, lurching about. I think he was trying to crash into me, but with Shaun unconscious, eyes closed, and Onyx keeping the demon off balance, they weren’t coming anywhere close.
That’s when I realized there was something seriously wrong about the red hunk of crystal I’d picked up off the floor. It felt wet in my hand, softer, like pulsing leather—like something alive. Shifting Shaun to keep him firmly with me, I pulled the crystal out from behind his back. It wasn’t a rock any more. Horror and disbelief thickened my thoughts, fuzzing them like cotton candy.
The rock was now a living heart, all veiny, dripping blood, looking like it had just been exhumed from a donor. I heard a thudda-thud that matched the rhythmic contractions in my hand.
Oh. My. Gawd!
I knew why this was important to the demon, why the miko had been able to control him with it—this was his heart. She had somehow cut it out of him and, being immortal, the demon hadn’t died. Here in the ghost realm, the thing showed its true form, and nothing could be more disgusting. I was sorely tempted to fling it as far from me as possible. But then I’d have no bargaining chip with the demon.
Using my hyper-charged foxfire to fly worked, in general theory, like how I’d used it to move through the ground; I just had to adjust to more power and speed, and to less control. Clutching Shaun and the thudding heart, I drove us into the ceiling, gingerly at first, pulling in the aura around my body. Balancing on the fire around my feet, I rose smoothly until my feet reached the writing, and I was stopped dead.
By channeling aura from my hands—and killing the foxfire under me—I ghosted up through the structure until I reached a first floor study. Reigniting the foxfire around my ankles, I hovered effortlessly. Spotting a door, I ghosted through it, out into a double-wide hall. I followed it around a bend and found myself near the first floor elevator, with a clear view of the backyard patio.
Torrent appeared next to me, sliding on silent feet from out of nowhere. He paused to stare.
I was high enough in the air so I could meet his gaze without looking up. “What’s wrong,” I asked. “Never seen a magical girl before? You should watch more anime. Here, take this.” I pushed Shaun off me.
Torrent caught him easily, draping him over a beefy shoulder.
“Get Shaun to the temple,” I ordered. “I’ll be along as soon as I’m sure Onyx is alright.”
Thudda-thud!
Impervious to shock, Torrent nodded at the pulsing heart I held. “And that?”
“I better keep it with me.”
“There are better souvenirs.”
I glared.
Torrent left.
I dithered between waiting where I was, or going back for Onyx. Before I decided, Onyx seeped under the elevator door, still a sheet of darkness. He thickened and took on solidity, acquiring human shape once more.
He leaped and wrapped himself around my legs. “Let’s get out of here, fast!” There was urgency in his voice and wildness in his stare.
“Wocky’s coming?”
“Let’s assume so.”
We shot toward the patio doors, phased through the shut doors, and kept going, past other shadow men standing watch outside. The ground fell away as I soared skyward. The mansion became the size of a dollhouse.
Onyx said, “When did you learn to do this?” He held on to me with one hand, and used the other to stroke one of the great rippling tails of fire that carried us along, moving in the autumn wind stream like a rudder.
“Never mind that,” I said. “Keep an eye out behind us.”
He lifted his face and grinned. “It will take him a while. Apparently, his demon strength was too much for the miko’s body. He broke it with all that thrashing around he did. From the way he was flopping on the floor, I’d say he broke her spine and at least one leg, maybe dislocating a hip as well. Not a pretty sight.”
“So he might not come at all,” I asked.
Thudda-thud!
“He’ll come, one way or another. I absorbed him.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
Onyx’s face lost expression as he remembered, struggling to put the inhuman into human terms. “I tasted resentment; like a winter-killed bird in the weeds, and anger like curdled cream aged in bile. There was a stench like grilled maggots—”
I felt queasy. “Forget I asked.”
“It means he could well abandon the miko’s body for a time and come flapping after us in his true form.” Like a python climbing a tree, he twisted around my legs to stare back the way we’d come. “Damn. I hate it when I’m right.”
“What? Don’t tell me he’s—”
My question was interrupted by a horrendous screech. I knew—if I looked back—I’d see Wocky streaking into the sky on demon wings, eyes like fanned coals, fangs wide, and claws straining to reach me.
I yelled, angling toward the temple. “How close is he?”
“Seconds…!” Onyx’s shoved up beside me, arms locking around my waist.
I jerked us violently to the side.
Wocky shot past, black wings beating the air, his lanky limbs dangling loosely from his torso. His worn, cracked-leather face showed none of the emotion I expected. It was as if, determined to kill, he’d gone all business. Riding momentum, he turned to come back at us.
I dropped a dozen feet, pulling out of the dive to evaluate my position.
Wocky’s cold words knifed across to me, “Give me my heart!”
I probably couldn’t keep up with him in the sky, even though Onyx’s weight was negligible. I needed to get down and under cover—fast!
I absorbed my aura, killing the foxfire supporting us. Crossing back, gravity took an iron grip, yanking down viciously on us in an attempt to make up for lost time. Color was bac
k in the world, but I was too busy to care, trying to get an idea of where I was falling and how long it would take to get there.
“This is your clever plan?” Onyx yelled. “You’ll get killed.”
“Trust me.”
His black stare locked on my face. His voice slashed like a threat, “Don’t you dare die on me.”
THIRTY-FIVE
SWORD-BREAKER: a fairly uncommon serrated dueling dagger with teeth-like projections to seize and snap rapier blades.
We were midway between the mansion and temple. The ground was coming up fast—at first—until my hammering heart gave out a huge pulse, a ripple of energy passing through my body, vibrating my skin. A spectral green shimmer glossed over me like the light I’d produced back in the temple room when I’d bent time while fighting the ninja. This effect was milder, producing a hyper awareness as though time for me were slowed by half, maybe more. The languidness was more common to the ghost realm.
Enveloped in a detached calm, I saw I’d hit near the deer-scare—and my father. Khorde’s gaze crept to meet mine. In his slower band of time, he seemed hugely unconcerned that I might splatter right at his feet. Didn’t he care the slightest bit? I felt anger at his studied indifference.
He can use a heart; ought to buy one.
On impulse, I flung the demon heart straight into Dad’s shadow mass. It hit, rippled his chest, vanishing inside. That will give Wocky someone else to pick on, I hoped.
Inches from the ground, tumbling now because of my throw, I crossed over. My returning orange foxfire flushed away the green glow of time distortion. I plunged down and down and down… I had to go deep enough to lose the demon if he chose to stay on my tail. I counted my heartbeats, letting a lot of them go by; until there was no longer any guarantee I could find my way to the surface.
A shudder went through me as I felt crawling fingers, Onyx changing his grip. In my blindness, I felt gratitude he’d stayed with me. If I didn’t know that I was destined to be with Shaun, I’d definitely give the shadow prince another look. Irritation from another source filled my head with static; I had to face all this without Taliesina because she’d chosen to be on someone else’s side. Traitor. I flung the word into the depths of my mind, not knowing if she’d even hear me.
Never mind, I shook off the thought. I had to get back to the light ... and air! No time for distractions. Up had to be the opposite way I was sinking, but I couldn’t go straight up. That way, I might surface too near the demon, if he was waiting me out. I applied a few small blasts of aura to stop my tumbling, then angled, rising, I hoped. The slanting movement made the trip longer, but that couldn’t be helped.
I was good at diving and holding my breath, but I was approaching my limits and still the ground encased me. If this were water, I could have fed it aura and breathed it. I’d learned in school that people can breathe water, extracting oxygen for a short while—until the energy drain fatigues their lungs and they drown. The energy needed in the ghost world was lower, but this was dirt. No chance of breathing that.
Can’t die here; it’ll break mom’s heart. Oddly, I didn’t just see the face of my human mother in my mind, but Cassie’s as well, which somehow pulled her words to me from our last shopping trip—I’d feel the slow spin of the whole world under me. There’s a kinetic sense of self that comes easily to our people, why we make good warriors.
There was nothing to see but black dirt, but I closed my eyes, trying to ignore burning lungs starved for air. I silenced rising panic with an effort, reaching for inner calm and quiet. Then I heard it, a whisper in the earth, a faint vibration like a sonar pulse.
What’s causing…? Ah! The deer-scare.
The bamboo rocker arm was smacking the pool’s rock border. Feeling it with my aura-flushed skin, I knew I was far enough from the pool to surface, and I had a guide for doing so. I corrected my course slightly and shoved aura under me, speeding my escape. A moment later, I broke the surface and poured aura into the ground, making it solid under me as I dragged in great lungfuls of blessed air.
Sounding sharper, more wooden in the air, the deer-scare clacked, and I knew I was a ways off, but still not a safe distance, needing a moment to get myself together.
With everything going on, I’d missed the moment Onyx had gone shadow, but I was fully aware of him pouring off me like matte black sludge. He formed his human aspect, kneeling by me, his hand possessive, planted on my back.
On hands and knees, I looked up at him. He stared away, face hard and watchful. I followed his gaze to see what had engaged his attention so fully. My mouth dropped open. Khorde still stood by the edge of the pool. A very enraged demon faced him. Wocky had his wings folded to his back, one of his arms buried nearly to the shoulder in the shadow lord’s chest. The demon’s hand should have poked out the back, but apparently my long-lost father was larger on the inside than on the outside. Extra spatial dimension, I suspected. He didn’t seem to mind someone rummaging around where his internal organs ought to be. In fact, he barely seemed to notice. Wocky was wind-milling his arm, frantically searching for the heart I’d tossed into daddy dearest.
Beyond the two, I saw the reason for Khorde’s distraction. He was staring at Cassie with a stillness that reminded me of a predator sighting prey. I was suddenly very concerned for her, but I couldn’t waste this opportunity.
Straightening, I reached out and touched Onyx on the chest. My hand didn’t sink into him. That would have been so weird. I wasn’t sure why I thought I had to whisper, but I did. “Onyx, I need you to do something very important for me.”
His stare came back to me, then down at the hand touching him. His hand covered my own. “Name it.”
“I need you to go back to where the demon left the miko’s body, and pull out every last one of those demon tears.”
“And what are you going to be doing?”
I turned my eyes to the area by the pool, wondering just what the hell was going to go down. My voice escaped, cold and hard, “Whatever I have to. Just hurry.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Onyx said.
I looked back at him. Then at his hand over mine. “You must. If there’s a real heart in there, if you care about me at all, I need you to do this.”
“No.”
Silently pleading, I stared into the endless void of his obsidian eyes.
A look of pain clenched his features. “If you get hurt, how am I to live with myself? How am I to live at all?”
I frowned at him. “Have a little faith in me, huh?”
He nodded with sudden decision. “I’ll make it quick. Don’t be too reckless.”
“Me?”
He shot me a look that said he wasn’t buying my feigned disbelief, and melted to a black film on the ground that raced away.
I stood and walked toward the three at the pool. Leaping in low gravity would have been quicker, but I didn’t want to startle anyone into a sudden act of violence. If there were some way to peacefully resolve this with a small degree of posturing…
Closing in, I circled around behind the demon, reaching Cassie’s side without all hell breaking loose. Again. Her eyes flashed to me, a blaze of warmth, relief relaxing the tenseness of her posture, for a second. Withdrawing his arm, the demon pulled back from Khorde. Tension crackled in the air as, Wocky wheeled toward Cassie and me, stepping toward us. His claw swung my way, one crooked finger pointing at my face in accusation.
“You did this!” His voice hacked the air. The demon’s eyes radiated heat and a red haze matching his temper. His wings lifted, half unfurling as though he were seconds away from launching himself at me. “Make him give it back to me.”
It was stupid, but my mouth ran away from me. “Khorde, are you not playing well with others? Shame on you.”
He dragged his eyes off Cassie, to me. “That which I claim is mine, until I tire of it. Such is the nature of darkness.”
The demon’s growl reminded me of the sound a grinder makes. He was pointing at Khorde no
w instead of me. “It’s my freakin’ heart. I’ll have it back, or I’ll kill everything that can die!”
Wocky’s promise scared me, but his demonic darkness was a shadow that proved the existence of Light. I called on that Light now; The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures… He kicks evil’s butt…
I was so glad I’d sent Onyx for the rest of the demon tears. Without them to anchor Wocky to the miko’s body, he couldn’t possess her and carry out that threat. His rage would be contained here, in the ghost realm, where he could only threaten Cassie and me, and any passing ghost—like Michiko, who faded in next to me, in a sailor suit school uniform like an escapee from an anime. Chilling the air, arms crossed, she rolled her head and tossed her long hair over a shoulder. She sniffed delicately at the demon, her noise wrinkling with distaste.
She shot me a look of intense irritation that would have done Wocky proud. “I am in your debt for saving my brother.” She bowed formally. “Would you like me to kill one of these creatures for you?”
I stared at her. “You can do that?”
Pride lit up her face. She bounced the blade of the storm god’s sword on her shoulder. “You know I have the power of a god now.”
Nodding affirmation, the deer-scare clacked on its stone.
I looked at Cassie. “What do you think? Maybe we can get a two for one deal here.”
“No,” she said. “Just the demon.”
Khorde lifted a brow. “No?”
The demon hitched his tone into a falsettoed mimic of her, “Just the demon.” His voice went back to sounding like a rusty hinge as he screamed at the heavens, “Why is everyone picking on the demon?”
I felt an odd sympathy for the creature. I was usually the can being kicked down the road by Fate.
Tears and Shadow (kitsune series) Page 26
