by K. R. Willis
Yeah. If he tries to hurt me, I’ll just give him a taste of my teeth and claws.
If things get out of hand, or he hurts you, disappear and get out of here. She growled her objection. You have to promise me. I don’t want to lose George, and I really want my weapons back, but not if that means losing you. Promise.
She snarled low and deep, her voice vibrating through my mind. I will not leave you. But if I must, I will promise to disappear long enough to become your tattoo again.
That would have to do. I breathed in through my nose, out through my mouth a couple of times to try to calm my nerves. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the tiniest nod from Leo, as though he was trying to tell me he was with me. Between the three of us, and the fact that the room only contained about a dozen vampires, I felt like the odds were decent we could defend ourselves and keep Dorian from hurting Rya. And if all else failed, she would resume her place as my tattoo.
“Very well. But if you lay one hand on her, or if I think you’re hurting her in any way, I will kill you.” My voice came out just as low as Rya’s had a moment ago, my body thrumming with the vibration of it.
Dorian smirked, then motioned for Khalid to do as he said. It took every bit of strength I had to remain rooted in place, and to keep my gaze firmly planted on Dorian as Khalid snatched up my weapons and strode toward me. He unceremoniously dropped them on the floor at my feet, the clang of the metal ringing in my ears, making me flinch.
Khalid leaned in close, his breath hot on my neck, as he whispered in my ear. “Enjoy them.” The unspoken “while you can” slithered down my spine. I balled my fists, cutting into my palm with my fingernails, to make myself be still. Khalid left the room, slamming the door on his way out.
“Now, give us what we asked for,” the Asian woman to Dorian’s right demanded.
After a moment of rhythmic breathing to try to calm my pounding heart, I unclenched my hands, relaxing them before I drew blood. That would be really bad, potentially deadly in this crowd.
Ready? I asked Rya.
Ready.
“My Spirit Warrior is a ‘she,’ not an ‘it.’ A puma. It is said that many generations ago, a warrior from one of the five tribes fought so bravely in battle that the Great Spirit came to him and offered him a reward. The warrior had tamed a wolf in his youth, and that wolf had been injured and lay dying. He asked the Great Spirit for a way to keep the wolf alive, to keep it with him until he himself died. The Great Spirit decided to imbue the wolf with some of His power, which would allow the wolf to live as long as its master did. Then he instructed the most skilled shaman of their tribe to—with his help—tattoo the wolf’s likeness on the warrior. That would be the wolf’s connection to this world, and to his master. They would be inseparable for the rest of their lives.” I left out the parts about Rya’s ability to heal me from the inside out when she was my tattoo, and several other things. They didn’t need to know everything. “All Spirit Warriors since then have been tattoos first, and must be earned by their warrior.”
All four of the Council members stared at me curiously. The few other vampires in the room whispered and gossiped.
“Show us,” Zarrina commanded.
I stood a little straighter, and Leo moved away from my right side to allow room for Rya to materialize. Her magic lifted the hairs on my arms, and the once-still tattoo bunched and pulled as she released herself from her inked cage. Within seconds, a beautiful tawny-colored puma stood at my side. She growled and hissed, a warning to the Council she was not to be trifled with. I laid my hand on her withers, and stroked her soft fur gently.
“Impressive,” the Asian vampire said. She rose from her chair. The gold-filigreed gown she wore shimmered in the light as she stepped off the dais and approached us. Rya growled, but didn’t move from my side. “May I?” the woman asked me.
I nodded, giving her permission to get closer. “Just don’t touch her,” I warned.
She circled us, her heels clacking on the stone. Rya held her ground, teeth bared, as the vampire inspected her from head to toe.
“Flawless,” the vampire praised. “And does she communicate with you?”
“No,” I said without missing a beat. For some reason my instincts told me not to reveal that little tidbit. “But she understands me, and obeys my command.” The less they knew, the better.
“You said a tribal shaman created her?” the skeletally thin male vampire to Dorian’s left asked me.
“Yes, guided by the Great Spirit’s hand. They cannot be created any other way.”
The Asian woman circled us one more time before returning to her chair, then she and Zarrina immersed themselves in muted conversation. Dorian seemed deep in thought, and the other vampire stayed quiet, looking almost bored.
Leo stepped forward a fraction. “My Lords, Keira has fulfilled the price set before her. We ask that you fulfill yours.”
Dorian’s eyes flashed black as he glared daggers at Leo, but he snapped his fingers anyway.
A door at the back of the room, partially hidden by a large tapestry, opened and a petite, rail-thin girl emerged with a silver tray. Her tiny feet shuffled as they moved across the floor. She circled around to the front of the dais, where she bent to one knee and presented the tray to Dorian. Only then did I see the small glass vial sitting in the middle of the tray.
Dorian plucked the vial off the platter without looking at it, then shooed the girl away, dismissing her. She disappeared back through the door as quickly as she came. He finally pulled his challenging gaze from Leo’s, and returned it to me. “Tell her to come get it,” he said and pointed at Rya.
I started to object, but felt Rya move away from my hand. Rya!
I am fine. She moved with feline grace toward the dais, her teeth bared the entire time. Rya paused about a foot from Dorian and hissed. He stared into her eyes, almost as if he intended to mesmerize her. She swiped one of her massive paws at him, just shy of cleaving through his leg, letting him know she couldn’t be enthralled. He didn’t flinch as I would have, but snapped out of whatever he was doing, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips.
Seeming satisfied with something, he placed the glass vial in her mouth, then let her move away unmolested. She returned to my side and dropped the vial in my hand when I opened it.
“Thank you, my Lords,” Leo said. “May we take our leave?”
Dorian had leaned over and joined the two women in their conversation. He held up his hand and motioned that we were dismissed. Leo scooped up my weapons and guided us toward the exit as quickly and quietly as he could. Rya and I were right there with him.
We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Chapter 14
We rode the hour back to Great Falls in relative silence, both of us lost in our thoughts. Rya had resumed her place as my tattoo as soon as we left the mausoleum, her magic and energy still needing to rest and rebuild.
“Something is wrong,” I finally said. “It shouldn’t have been that easy. They didn’t even put up a fight.” That scared me more than if they had attacked us. At least I had been expecting that.
My mind ran laps for several seconds. What could they possibly want with the information I’d given them on Spirit Warriors? How could they use it? Could Rya and other Warriors be in danger? Had I just doomed them all in my quest to help a friend?
Leo glanced at me over his shoulder. “I agree,” he said. He turned back to the road. “Something is definitely amiss, but I cannot figure out what that might be. Rest assured, this is not the last we will hear of it.” His words hung heavy in the air like a curse.
My chest felt tight and I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d missed something. I blew out a breath, annoyed at my lack of answers.
With the adrenaline of the last few hours ebbing, exhaustion set in. I was so tired. Tired of all the drama, politics, fighting, and just tired in general. My life had become so crazy over the last two weeks, I wondered if I would ever find normal again
.
Lost as I was, we arrived back at Sally’s before I realized where we were. Leo opened my door, and we headed up the sidewalk toward her apartment door. She yanked the door open on the first knock.
“Keira, thank goodness you’re here. He’s taken a turn for the worse. I’ve done everything I can, but he’s barely holding on.” She held the door as we entered, then pushed it shut. I had to nearly jog to keep up with her as she led us down the hallway to her spare bedroom.
What I saw when we stepped through the door stopped me in my tracks. George lay on the bed, unmoving, his once tanned skin, now a blue-ish ash color. He’d lost some of his muscle definition, and even his blond hair, which I’d always kind of adored, had lost its shine, and now appeared dull. He looked like a corpse.
“Is he...?” I couldn’t finish the words.
“No,” Leo said as he pushed past me into the room. “I can hear his heartbeat. Slow and labored, but there.” He stared down at George, a look of sympathy on his face.
“Did you get it?” Sally asked. I snapped out of it, and approached the bed where she stood waiting. She grabbed the vial gently when I pulled it from my skirt pocket and handed it to her. “This is it?” I nodded.
“Here, let me assist,” Leo offered. With great care, he pried open George’s mouth, and held it while Sally uncorked the vial, then poured the liquid down his throat.
My stomach sank when George didn’t even react. Maybe we were too late. I should have tried harder, and not taken so much time. Looking at Leo I asked, “What now?”
“Now we wait. It will take time for the Aqua Vitae to work its way through his system. We should know by tomorrow night if it is going to work or not.” He turned toward me. “We should go. It is near morning, and you are about to drop. There is nothing more to do right now.”
He was right, but I looked at Sally anyway. “Will you be okay if I leave?”
She handed the empty vial to Leo before answering, “Like he said, there’s nothing more to do but wait. It’s up to George now. He’ll either make it or he won’t.” Sally scrubbed a hand down her face. She looked exhausted. She popped her neck, then reached across her chest with her good arm and moved her injured arm around in stiff, jerky circles.
“How’s it holding up?” I asked, tilting my head toward her arm when she looked at me with a questioning lift of her eyebrow.
She glanced down at it, and then tucked it in close to her body. “It’s sore and stiff as hell, but it is what it is. Maybe all this use will help it recover faster.” Sally smiled, but I could tell she was as unsure of it now as she had been two weeks ago. We just had to keep hoping she would regain full use of it, and only time would provide that answer.
“All right. Goodnight then. Call me if anything changes, or if you need assistance. Leo and I can let ourselves out. You should get some rest.” We hugged, and said our goodbyes.
Once Leo and I were on the road again, I asked, “What do you think his chances are? Be honest with me.” The last thing I wanted was for him to sugarcoat things. I wanted to know if everything I had just risked would be for nothing.
“The Water of Life is a wondrous thing. The likes of which I have never heard of or seen before in my long life. It has the potential to cure George, and make him whole again.” He didn’t say anything for a moment, then added, “But I also do not know how far gone someone can be and it still work successfully. As Sally stated, George will either pull through, or he will not.”
“You really need to work on your pep talk,” I said.
He turned and offered me a weak smile. “If I know anything about George, it is that he is a fighter. He has overcome many great obstacles in his life.” Leo reached over and placed his hand on my knee and squeezed, then resumed watching the road as he drove. A shiver ran through me at his contact, and I knew he felt it when his eyes blackened for a brief moment. We rode the rest of the way to my apartment in companionable silence.
And I found my hand resting on top of his by the time we got there.
∞∞∞
The nightmare began almost as soon as I fell asleep. But this time, instead of just seeing Rya’s pelt draped across Sam’s shoulders, I stood frozen, and watched as Loukas, not the Evil One, carved her pelt from her still-living form. The coppery tang of blood coated the air like a film. He held her with his telekinesis so she couldn’t fight back, her mouth the only thing that could move. She hissed and growled, screamed in that way pumas do, sending a jolt of pain through my soul at the childlike sound of it.
Unable to move myself, I joined in her screaming until my lungs hurt, my throat burned, and my eyes were seared with the sight of her being skinned alive one slow inch at a time. I fought to swim to the surface, to escape the drowning depths of the nightmare, but couldn’t make my muscles obey my commands.
I screamed again.
Then the nightmare shifted. The Evil One stood before me now, carving up Sam as he hung from the chains I’d seen in his lair. His glee-filled laughter burned itself into my mind, adding to the torment that already resided there. But Sam didn’t scream or cry out in pain. Instead, he stared at me with hate in his eyes. The sight of such anger and loathing directed at me from my best friend nearly brought me to my knees.
“You knew I would come for you. Surely you knew,” Sam said. I didn’t understand what he was saying. It didn’t make any sense.
My chest suddenly felt heavy with the weight of a thousand bricks. All sensation in my toes disappeared, leaving them feeling like dead, useless stumps. Then the numbness began spreading. It moved up my foot until it encompassed my ankle, and terror settled in when I realized something was wrong. This had never been part of the nightmare before.
I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Wake up, dammit! Wake up!”
The nightmare evaporated with an audible pop, and I jolted upright in bed. Rya’s voice, which I could clearly hear now, screamed in my head, trying to rouse me from my sleep.
Khalid! He’s here!
Holy shit.
Everything appeared blurry when I opened my eyes, the leftovers of sleep weighing heavy on me. When I tried to roll myself out of bed, my feet didn’t respond, but the rest of me did, which planted me firmly on the carpeted floor of my bedroom. The landing jarred my teeth, and pain lanced through my shoulders and hips. That’s when it dawned on me what had felt so wrong in the nightmare, other than the obvious.
My feet were frozen and useless for real.
“Well, well, well,” Khalid said from the direction of my doorway. “What do we have here?”
I felt, rather than saw him step into the room and approach me.
“No guard cat to protect you.” He tsked at me, disappointed.
I fought to get to my feet, but the second I put weight on them, they gave out from beneath me. Rya, help!
I’m trying!
Khalid laughed, the sound of his laughter like saw blades in my ears. “Your warrior can’t help you, little girl. After her stunt in the diner, I know what to look for. I feel her magic as she tries to break free. All I have to do is push back with my mind and she is helpless.” He laughed again, this time right beside me. He knelt, his imposing frame blocking out the moonlight that filtered in through the windows, and stroked a hand through my hair.
“You should have bargained for Dorian to order me not to hurt you in retaliation for taking back what is rightfully mine.” He grinned, the smile not at all comforting. “You’re fair game now. I can freeze your body, one inch at a time, and do whatever I want with you.”
The numb, frozen feeling moved up my leg to my calf, and panic settled into my chest. I had to figure something out fast, before he froze any more of me. With my hand as flat and rigid as possible, I struck him in the throat with as much force as I could muster. It surprised him for a second, then he backhanded me. Hard. I closed my eyes as I slid across the floor, and winced from the pain of the carpet burn. The rough Berber made it feel like someone was flaying me alive. The
wall stopped my slide with a heavy thud. I sat for a moment, stunned and unable to move, but then the sound of Khalid approaching snapped me out of it, and I pushed to a sitting position.
Think. What the hell did I do with my weapons? A few seconds of clarity struck me, and I remembered I’d put them on top of my dresser when I came in the room. Risking a glance in that direction, I saw them, right where I’d left them. Khalid hadn’t retrieved them yet.
But how would I get to them?
Khalid scooped me up off the floor by my hair, ripping a scream from my throat. The intensity of the pain made my eyes water, and black dots scattered across my vision. I wrapped both hands around my hair in an effort to try to alleviate some of the pain. It didn’t help.
Rya, don’t let me pass out. Help me fight.
She couldn’t get free, but she could lend me her strength. She stopped fighting to free herself—which, as Khalid had said, was proving to be futile—and instead directed her energy into helping me stay conscious. This was one of the many reasons I hadn’t told the Council everything Spirit Warriors could do.
With my feet dragging uselessly across the floor and my hands the only things keeping him from ripping half my hair out, I couldn’t do anything but go where he wanted. Which happened to be my bathroom. He held me aloft with one hand while he turned my shower on as hot as it would go. Tendrils of steam billowed out as it reached full temperature, and his intentions suddenly dawned on me.
I pulled both hands free from my hair, ignored the pain of my hair tearing out in sections, and hit him with everything I had. I punched, kicked, slapped, all to no avail. He grunted from a blow I managed to land in his solar plexus, but he remained otherwise uninjured. After taking a moment to check the temperature, and getting a better hold on me, Khalid tossed me into the stream of scalding water.
Chapter 15
The boiling water of the shower must have sent me into shock, because I didn’t feel a thing as I lay motionless in the tub for several pain-filled seconds. The water coming from the showerhead covered every inch of my body, but all I felt was the pain landing on a hard porcelain tub had caused. My flight reflexes finally kicked in: I scrabbled for the side of the tub and pulled myself up over the edge with as much strength as I could find. Khalid just laughed and pushed me back in.
