Split at the Seams

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  A car drove past and I gasped. I hadn’t expected it, and while it blocked him for just a moment, it was long enough for him to vanish.

  What was the point of showing me what he really looked like?

  The thought scared the hell out of me, so I stuck the scabbard into my pocket. It sat reassuringly against my thigh, but I remembered Oren mentioned it was boot-sized. I needed to be armed, in case that dog decided to attack again. And even though Oren reassured me that the shrouding incantation I’d put on it back at the office would keep it safely concealed from everyone but me, I still thought it best to keep it as hidden as possible.

  I made my way toward my closet, and instead of grabbing a pair of sneakers I chose a pair of black ankle boots. I stuck the dagger between my sock and boot, which was made easier by the boot clip on the back of the scabbard. It stayed secured in place even when I stood up, and my bootleg jeans concealed it even further.

  It would take some getting used to, though.

  After another quick glance out the window confirmed the dog was no longer out there watching me, I left my room. It took me a few steps to get my walking straight and not make it too obvious that I had a concealed weapon inside my boot, before heading down the stairs.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As soon as my boots hit the last step, I knew something was wrong.

  My body tensed and I could smell an unfamiliar scent in the air. For a moment, I thought it might be Conrad burning the pizza, but even burnt pizza didn’t smell like this. And why would he be putting anything in the oven right now?

  I gulped down the lump forming in my suddenly dry throat, desperately craving a drink of water and a good dose of normalcy. Maybe if I pretended not to notice, everything would be okay. Except, the way my skin crawled…I was just kidding myself.

  Exhaling slowly, I headed for the kitchen. On my way, I noticed the front door was still closed—locked, in fact. Though I did have to spin around when I could’ve sworn I felt someone’s breath on my neck.

  It’s the damn bite! It was tingling again, and seeing the creature watching me from across the street had given me the creeps.

  “Hey, Conrad, what are you doing in here?” I raised my voice, trying to put some cheer into it before speeding up and strolling into the kitchen.

  As soon as I walked inside, I stopped. Shock paralyzed me to the spot because the overhead lights were off. The kitchen was empty, with no sign of Conrad or Vixen.

  “Hey, Conrad, where are you?” Had he ducked downstairs to help Vixen back to bed? The door leading into the lower story was wide open, and although I couldn’t hear any noise coming from down there, I took a step toward it.

  A screeching sound brought my motions to a complete stop.

  I spun around to face the window above the kitchen sink. The noise was coming from there.

  It took me a few seconds to draw up the courage to head toward it, and when I was standing right in front of it I froze. The blinds were half closed but because the lights were off I could see outside. I leaned over and noticed black gunk on the window pane and smudged on the outer ledge. When I looked up, the feral dog was on the other side of the window, staring right at me.

  Had Oren reset the protective barriers around the house?

  The thing opened its gaping mouth and sneered. Blood dribbled from its snout and down its chin, red eyes piercing right into my soul. As I stared back, almost hypnotized, the kitchen walls bled to black.

  Oh shit, I was heading into the dark patch.

  No, I can’t let that happen. If I did, the barrier between us would shatter and nothing would keep us apart.

  I shut my eyes and curled my hands into fists, pressing my nails tightly against my palms to help keep me focused and in control. I didn’t want to lose it now, not when we had a plan of action.

  The bite mark burned against the bandage and I winced, but it also helped keep me grounded. When I snapped my eyes open, the kitchen was back to normal and the dog was gone.

  Maybe I had just imagined it.

  I turned around and found the screen door leading out to the backyard wide open, swinging in the breeze. Shit! I was pretty sure it hadn’t been open just a minute ago. Someone had just opened it and I hadn’t even heard a sound.

  Turning in a half-circle, I looked around the kitchen, wide eyed and terrified, hoping not to miss anything important. The light might still be off, but I could see well enough.

  The house was so quiet it made my skin crawl.

  I grabbed my mobile phone from the kitchen table and dialed Oren’s number. The dog was in here somewhere. I could feel his dirty presence squirming beneath my skin from the bite that refused to heal.

  Come on, Oren, pick up!

  I tiptoed to the door leading downstairs and took the first step down.

  “Conrad, Vixen?”

  No one responded, but when I looked down I noticed someone was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. My heart jumped inside my chest.

  “Hello?”

  The sound of Oren’s voice in my ear made me jump. “Oh, thank God, Oren…listen, something’s happened!”

  “Sierra, calm down. What’s wrong?”

  “I—” was the only response I got to say before the phone was violently snatched out of my hand. I turned around, reaching for it in vain. I lost my footing and nearly tumbled down the stairs, but a hairy human hand grabbed me by the arm and forcibly shoved me backward so hard I slammed into the table.

  My worst fear was now standing in front of me. He was no longer in his black dog guise, but was the olive-skinned man I’d seen across the street.

  “You don’t need to call no one, niña,” the slimy, slightly accented, male voice said. “I was wondering if you would call your boyfriend or your abuelo.” He glanced at the phone in his hand with a wicked smirk on his lips. “I guess blood is thicker than water. Although, your boyfriend is not available at the moment, is he?”

  I ran around the side of the table, putting it between us. How did he know Oren was my grandfather?

  Now I understood why he’d been watching me from across the road. He’d been keeping an eye on the house, waiting.

  The bite on my collarbone itched like crazy and I wanted to tear the bandage off and pour acid over it. Anything to stop the horrid connection I had with this monster. The bite pounded to its own rhythm, like a demented heartbeat on my skin.

  “What the hell do you want?” I said through gritted teeth, staring at him. At least he wasn’t naked anymore, but had donned a pair of shorts. He was slight and not much taller than me, his chest covered in dark hair. I spotted a dragon tattoo on his left bicep that looked a lot like the one Jonathan had on his upper thigh. The muscles on his skinny frame moved like that of a wild animal every time he got a little closer.

  The last thing I wanted to do was exchange useless chitchat with this maniac. Not when I could feel the creep’s presence rattling my bones and slowly tearing into my nerves.

  He pressed back against the kitchen cabinets as if we were two friends enjoying a late-night discussion. “You like to get straight to business, don’t you?”

  “We don’t have any business.” I tried to keep my voice as strong as I could, but my hands were shaking. He was still holding on to my mobile, so I thought about racing out to the phone in the hallway to call Oren again before this intruder could stop me, but maybe he was already on his way back. Oren said he’d be quick, but I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he’d left. I glanced at the kitchen clock. It had just hit on ten thirty, and I couldn’t be wasting time with this thing.

  The man noticed me staring at the mobile phone still in his hand and held it up in front of him. “You want this?”

  I didn’t respond because I was too busy trying to get my breathing under control.

  “If you catch it, you can have it.” Before he’d even finished the sentence, the phone was airborne.

  I reached, knowing there was no way I could save it. It bo
unced off the tabletop and hit the floor with enough force to litter the tiles with chunks of broken plastic. The casing seemed to have cracked, but the front looked fine. I could also hear Oren’s voice calling my name, and wondered how much he’d heard.

  Before I could get to it, the dog-man had it in his hand again.

  “Looks like these things are tougher than they look.” He flashed it so I could see the call was in fact still connected. He pressed it to his ear and said, “I’m sorry but she can’t come to the phone right now.”

  “What do you want?” I refused to let him bait me, even tried as hard as I could to keep the disappointment from showing on my face. If that was Conrad lying unconscious downstairs, surely Vixen was too. And there was no way of knowing how close Oren really was. He could still be at his house, or he could be on his way back. There were too many unknown variables right now. So it looked like I just had to deal with this on my own.

  Come on, Oren…get here as soon as you can!

  “It was so hard to get you alone.” He dumped the phone on the table and stared at me.

  “Don’t come near me!” I took a step back, but there was nowhere left to go, just the wall behind me.

  A leer formed along his thin lips. “Of course I’m going to come near you, niña. How else am I going to take you?”

  “You need to tell your freaky friends that I’m not going to play along with whatever sick game they’re trying to involve me in,” I spat. “I took care of Troy and Travis, I’m sure I can do the same to you!”

  A knowing glare captured his dark eyes and they flashed red. “Ah, so you’re not totally stupid, then? You do have some idea of what we are…”

  I didn’t confirm or deny it. The only thing I suspected about this Obscurus group was that Jonathan was somehow involved, that they had access to the demonic, were fascinated with my power, and wanted me dead. Aside from those vague nuggets of suspicion, I was counting on Lavie to provide the rest.

  “I know you had help with the brothers,” he said, holding his position on the other side of the kitchen table. “The old man takes good care of you. He’s a pesky witch, and hard to get rid of.” The leer returned. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand why he cares so much about his granddaughter.”

  I recoiled, unable to hold back my reaction this time. He might not have physically struck me, but the fact he knew who Oren really was made my pulse beat uncontrollably. How could he know, why would he know? Did this mean Jonathan knew the truth too?

  “What do you want from me? If you want to kill me, hurry up and get it done!” I yelled.

  He chuckled and shook his head, as if he were dealing with a child. “I don’t want you dead. At least, not yet.”

  “Then why did you attack me outside my own house?”

  He shrugged. “I simply wanted to immobilize you long enough to take you. We’ve been waiting a long time to get you in our grasp.”

  “Why?”

  Another shrug and this time he took a step, curling his long fingers around the top of the chair in front of him. “We have a lot of plans for you, niña. You didn’t think we would take someone so powerful and only use you once, right? You’re going to be used, and then recycled. There’s enough power within your core to last a long while. I don’t think you realize just how special you really are.”

  “I’m not as special as you think.”

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong. On the outside you appear to be just another spook catcher who can see ghosts, but you’re so much more. Not only do you have witch blood flowing within you, but also other things you couldn’t possibly know about. We’ll tell you soon enough, but now, enough of the chitchat. I think it’s time we got out of here before any of your people get back.”

  ”Stay the hell away from me.”

  “Give me your hand and we can leave without incident.”

  “No!”

  He rolled his eyes. “I guess we have to do this the hard way.”

  “What the hell are you, anyway?”

  He stopped his approach. “I’m a Perro Negro. Have you ever heard of the black dog?”

  I couldn’t believe Oren was right about this creep.

  He chuckled. “Your ignorance really does make things a lot easier for us, you know?” His eyes flashed red. “I used to be just another black dog, until they discovered me and I evolved into so much more. I have many different names around the world, but my power comes from sorcery. I can change from dog to man as quickly and easily as any werewolf, but with the demonic taint I’ve become so much stronger. My bite can now infect others. I can make more like me.”

  At the admission, my clavicle tingled. So both Vixen and I were at risk of becoming a different version of this black dog creature next month. I was going to be sick.

  “That’s enough explanations for now. Come on, niña!”

  “I don’t think so.” I headed left, as if I were making my escape, and he bought it. At the last moment, I dodged right and ran out the back door.

  I rushed across the yard, doing my best to keep from slipping on the wet grass or letting the discomfort of running with a dagger in my boot hinder my movements, and made it around the side of the house. Running up the concrete stairs, I was determined to escape before this beast could grab me. As I pumped my legs and ascended toward the front of the house, something struck me in the face. I went down, seeing stars, and landed on my back. Someone rolled me over onto my front, putting pressure against the small of my back.

  I should’ve focused on what was ahead, instead of continually looking back trying to spot the hound. No wonder he hadn’t rushed out behind me, he’d had a trap ready and waiting. But who was this?

  The sound of heavy breathing suddenly filled my ears as I tried to catch my breath, and I knew he’d finally caught up. Even in his human form, he sounded like a feral animal.

  My face hurt so much it made my head pound a sick rhythm.

  “I’m going to be sick,” I spat. The pressure on my back lifted slightly, enough for me to raise my upper body and throw up. I coughed uncontrollably, because the acid burned the back of my throat.

  “Why can’t you get it right, Mauricio? How many times is she going to evade you?” A silky, female voice I vaguely recognized said above me. So this woman was the one who’d smacked me and was now holding me down.

  “It’s not my fault! She can be very resourceful.”

  “I don’t care what she can and can’t be, just get her into the car and deliver her for tonight’s proceedings. We don’t want to keep our benefactor waiting.”

  When the pressure against my spine lifted completely, I prepared to push my body upright and run as fast as I could, but with the amount of sickness tearing through my insides and the dizziness making everything indistinguishable, I didn’t think I would get far. But it was worth a try. I wasn’t prepared to become someone’s pawn in a game I still didn’t know the rules for.

  I need to get up, and run. Now!

  As I prepared to do just that—even if most of the preparation involved visualizing what I wanted to do, without any evidence I could actually do it—I was plucked off the ground and thrown over someone’s shoulder.

  By the stink of his body and the feel of his sweaty skin and hair, I knew it was the dog-man. All I could see was the ground and his dirty, hairy feet as he took me from my house, and I couldn’t even call out to anyone. My throat refused to work, but there was no one around to help me anyway.

  I couldn’t even see the woman who’d helped him. Where had she gone?

  The street was dark, and the thunder I thought had gone now rumbled in the distance. Not a single soul was outside right now, and why would they be, so close to midnight? The thought of missing Mace’s deadline because of these two made me sick all over again.

  I lost all sense of direction when my body was literally thrown into the backseat of a car. It was a generic-looking model, more plastic than metal. I crawled onto the seat, trying to keep my vision from til
ting.

  “Buckle up. I need to get you there in one piece,” he instructed seconds before shutting the door behind me.

  I threw myself against it, lifting the lever. It was locked. I couldn’t even get the window open because everything was controlled from the driver’s side. As I tried to move faster than him and hopefully lock him out, the sound of a wolf’s call made me pause.

  Mauricio stepped inside, closed the door and put his seat belt on. He peered into the rearview mirror and frowned. “Shit.” He started the car and stepped on the accelerator so hard I fell off the seat. “Put your fucking belt on, you silly girl!”

  I used the driver’s seat in front of me to get to my knees and climbed onto the backseat to look out the back window. Something had unnerved Mauricio and I wanted to know what.

  My heart skipped a beat. “Papan,” I yelled.

  “Shut the fuck up, niña!” Mauricio warned. We were speeding down the deserted suburban roads and Papan was giving chase.

  Even though he was still far, I could see Papan’s wolf eyes glare into mine. He looked pissed and seemed to hit nitrous, getting closer by the second. As he sprinted toward the car, I started to think that maybe he would reach us before this asshole took me wherever the hell we were going, but Mauricio sped up every time Papan seemed to gain ground.

  “No, Papan!” I slapped my palms against the window, so hard it wobbled. Maybe more pounding would make it break.

  I watched as Papan kept his eyes on me, determined to close the distance and stop this car. And he almost did. I watched, hopeful, as he closed in on the bumper.

  His body kept moving but he pulled back enough for me to recognize he intended to leap onto the car. Just as his body left the ground, another car raced out of nowhere and hit Papan, barely avoiding the backend of this vehicle.

  Mauricio laughed. “About time.”

  “No!”

  Papan’s body tumbled onto the road, spinning fast until he was stopped by a tree trunk. The car that hit him did a U-turn, leaving him discarded on the side of the road like road kill. I hadn’t seen the driver’s face, just caught a flash of long, dark hair.