The Questing Beast (Veil Knights Book 4)

by Rowan Casey

  “I need to rest a little while,” he said, hating that it was true but knowing he’d be no good to anyone while this tired. “I have to wait for more light. Then I’m going to go find them. I promise I’ll bring Sophie back.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Bertha said. She took the bite out of those words by adding, “but I know in my heart you’ll try.”

  “I’ll stay with you,” Dr. Zhou said to Bertha. “Head injuries are not something to shrug off. If you get worse, I’m calling the police and we’re getting you a transport to Whitehorse.”

  “Have to get the boys to bed, Felix,” Bertha said to the doctor, trying to get out of bed.

  “I’ll handle it,” Perce said as she groaned and laid back down. He left the room with a solemn nod to Dr. Zhou. Carl and Oliver were still scared but utterly exhausted. He got them into their bunks without a lot of fuss and tucked them in.

  “It’s okay.” He heard Oliver whisper to Carl. “Perce is a like a knight. He’ll rescue them.”

  Perce went to his own room to lay down, forcing his eyes shut. He didn’t need a fancy alarm to wake, he could set his own internal clock whenever he needed it. He gave himself an hour and a half. Enough to rest a little and let the world turn just that much farther toward the morning.

  “Hold on, Dani,” he said, more mouthing the words than saying them aloud. “Your knight will come.”

  Chapter Eight

  Dani laid in a pool of her own vomit and blood in a stygian darkness that seemed to extend forever around her, and she despaired. Her hands were bound in front of her, the coarse rope cutting into her broken right wrist a constant agonizing reminder. Her head felt ten sizes too large and her left eye wouldn’t open fully. Not that there was anything to see.

  She laid there wondering if her ripped stitches in her thigh would help her bleed out more quickly or if the head injuries would claim her first when she heard a cough to her left followed by a pained sob.

  Sophie. Dani pulled herself out of the pit of despair. Sophie was here and breathing.

  “Sophie,” she whispered through cracked and swollen lips.

  “Here,” Sophie said, sounding about as strong as Dani did. “My hands are tied but not my legs, you?”

  Dani could barely feel her legs. They were cold and her thigh wound was a dull throb that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. She kicked experimentally with her feet and found them unbound. She had no shoes on. She’d been in bed in nothing but a sundress when the hunters had come and as far as she could tell, that’s still all she wore.

  “Feet are free,” she said. “I think my stitches tore though. And my wrist is broken.”

  “So we’ve got three good hands and three good legs between us,” Sophie said.

  Dani wanted to kiss the other woman just then. Making a joke, sad as it was, at a time like this brought a weird kind of hope to Dani’s heart. She wasn’t alone and Sophie was cognizant enough and brave enough to help her.

  “There’s a wall here, it feels like stone,” Sophie said and Dani heard a dull thud.

  “The floor does, too,” Dani said, scraping the foot of her good leg against it. “Can you come to me?”

  “Hum or something so I can follow your voice,” Sophie said.

  Dani started humming one of the few songs that she knew. She heard scraping and scrabbling and then Sophie’s bound hands touched her bruised face. Dani stopped humming and winced, pulling back.

  “Sorry,” Sophie said. “Did you have to hum ‘Living on a Prayer’ though? Seriously?”

  “It was always on the radio at the doctor’s office,” Dani said. It was the first song that had come to mind. All the others she knew were hymns and their church hadn’t been that big on song so there were precious few of those.

  Sophie’s hands returned, feeling down Dani’s shoulder and then her arm to her bound wrists. “I think I might be able to work on this knot, but it’s going to hurt, sorry.”

  “Do what you have to,” Dani said. She gritted her teeth and tried to think about something, anything else as Sophie went to work blindly picking and pulling at the knot.

  Her mind went to Perce’s pale, scared face as he knelt by her side after she fell from the tree. She’d never seen him so close to tears before. He looked like all the life and color had fled him and his aura had gone dark and stormy, but not with danger toward her. It had been raw fear and anger, her twin raging at the world and she hadn’t understood it.

  Perce. Shit. He was watching the hunter’s camp. What if they’d known about the book and where it was because they’d caught him first? Dani shook that thought off. Perce wouldn’t tell them, not even if they tortured him. Where would they do that, anyway? In a camp surrounded by people? The hunters had managed to assault and kidnap her and Sophie, sure, but they’d been worried about the boys escaping and bringing help. That gave her some hope. If the boys got the police, Perce would have to notice that if he was out there watching the lodge.

  She had to accept that Perce might already be dead, though. Dani steeled her heart against the thought, but she knew they had to operate under the assumption that nobody was coming to rescue them. She couldn’t rely on Grimm in far away L.A. and she couldn’t depend on her brother being her knight in shining armor.

  The ropes loosened and the relief nearly knocked Dani out again as some of the pain faded.

  Dani shook her good hand gently to get the blood flowing and tucked her right hand up against her chest, holding it above her heart to help with the throbbing pain. She felt her pentagram move against her chest. Not that it had done her much good. She hadn’t even had time to think of using her safety magic. She’d been too busy getting her butt kicked. Not that it was reliable anyway, not with her being injured and weak.

  Magic wasn’t going to get her out of this, either. She ignored the pendant and felt for Sophie’s hands.

  “Going to be hard with one hand, might take a while,” she warned Sophie as she got to work on the ropes. Dani knew knots and these had been tied quickly and poorly. Score one for haste and people with no pride in their work, she thought.

  “I have a hair appointment at three, so don’t take all day,” Sophie said.

  Dani chuckled and it made her head throb, but she didn’t care. This woman was a blessing and an angel and Dani vowed to never think another disparaging thought about Sophie lusting after her brother ever again.

  After what felt like days but was probably just minutes, she worked the knot loose enough that Sophie could do the rest. When Dani had broken her arm, Mama hadn’t brooked any excuses. She’d told Dani that she would just have to learn to use her left hand since she’d been so careless with her right one. So Dani had learned. She was grateful now and hoped Mama was watching from heaven and could hear the silent prayer she sent her way.

  “Stay here,” Sophie whispered. “I’m going to feel around and see if I can find a door or something.”

  Sophie’s body heat left Dani and she waited, listening to the sounds of Sophie moving around. Then her mind woke fully up as her hand brushed her pentagram again.

  “Wait,” she said as she reached to grasp it with her good hand.

  “What is it?” Sophie was somewhere to Dani’s right.

  “I can make light, I think,” Dani said. Her safety spell caused a pale glow, she’d seen it before in the woods after she was shot.

  “How?” Sophie asked.

  “Don’t freak out,” Dani said.

  “Dani, seriously? Now I’m going to freak out?” came the sarcastic reply.

  Dani smiled and focused on her pentagram, thinking about safety. She thought about Perce and how she prayed he was okay. She visualized a perfect glowing circle of light and warmth, a circle no demon could touch.

  Sophie gasped as Dani’s pentagram started to glow. It wasn’t a lot of light, the spell was weak and wavered even as Dani held up her medallion to get a look around. Her eyes blinked against the light.

  “You’re a
witch?” Sophie asked. She was about ten feet from Dani, just in front of what looked like an iron-banded door straight out of a medieval fantasy novel.

  “Something like that,” Dani said. It was easier than trying to explain she was a reincarnated Knight of the Round Table. Which Dani wasn’t even sure she was. If Perce was a Knight and if Mama was right about their family history, that made him Parsifal or Perceval or however it was. Which meant she was most likely Dandrane, Parsifal’s sister and no knight at all. She’d been thinking about that a lot since that night in L.A.

  This was not the time for those thoughts. She had to focus on the light, on her circle of safety.

  Sophie seemed to recognize this and went for the door, asking no more questions for the moment. It was locked or bolted from the other side and far too sturdy for them to get through. They quickly searched the room, Dani holding her pentagram up like a flashlight so Sophie could look around.

  The room was a half-moon shape, all stone, even the ceiling. There was only the door, no windows at all.

  “Shh,” Sophie said as she checked over the door again. “I think someone is coming.” She pressed her ear to the door.

  “Get the rope,” Dani hissed, holding onto her spell with her last ounce of willpower. “We can ambush them.”

  It was a dim hope and a poor plan, but she had to do what she could. Sophie helped her to her feet and took up one of the lengths of rope, holding it in front of her like a garrote. Dani forced her leg to take her weight and took up a position directly in front of the door while Sophie stood to the side opposite where the hinges appeared to be. The door looked like it would swing open into the hall, not the room.

  Dani’s light faded as she heard footsteps thunking their way up to the door. She let go of the pentagram and made a fist with her good hand as she put most of her weight onto her good leg.

  Three good legs and three good hands would have to be enough.

  A she listened as a bolt slid back. The man opened the door, obviously not expecting anyone waiting for him. There was light in the twisting stone stairway behind him and it spilled into the cell, silhouetting the hunter.

  Sophie acted immediately, giving the man no time to react to Dani charging at him. She slung her makeshift noose around his neck and pulled him sideways as Dani slammed into him and brought her knee up into his family jewels.

  Her knee connected and she felt some of the mad strength go out of the man as he groaned and scrabbled for control of the rope around his throat. Dani ran her hand down to his belt and felt the knife sheath there. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t allow herself a minute of thought.

  In a smooth motion, she drew the hunter’s knife and plunged it up into his side. The man cried out, but his scream was half-strangled and muted thanks to the rope crushing his throat. Dani kept stabbing his torso until he stopped fighting and sagged between the two women.

  “Enough,” Sophie spit out the words. “Enough, Dani.”

  Dani stumbled back, still holding the knife. She stared at Sophie, both of them spattered with blood. Then she looked at the crumped man. Richard, she thought. His name had been Richard.

  It didn’t matter. He was dead and she couldn’t dwell on what she’d done. In the world of predator and prey, in the world of hunters, there was only those who survived and those who didn’t.

  She and Sophie were going to survive.

  “Two to go,” she said to Sophie, a mad grin splitting her aching face.

  Sophie bent over the body, checking him for other weapons, and found a revolver in an ankle sheath. She stood up and walked over to help Dani from the room.

  “Two to go,” Sophie said to her as they started to climb the stone steps out of the dungeon.

  Chapter Nine

  The sunset was a memory and the dawn only a dream when Perce rose from the bed, strapped on his knives, and set out for the hidden tower. The town might have been populated by ghosts for the silence it held, even the taverns were closed and quiet this deep into the short summer night.

  He moved slowly through the trees, carefully placing each foot. It was darker even than he’d imagined it would be under the canopy of leaves and needles in full summer growth. He’d memorized the direction and the shapes of various trees on his way out of the woods from the blueberry circle before, but that had been broad daylight. Now, in the darkness, the trees gathered shadows around them and the woods looked very different.

  All his senses were on high alert. He had his eyes opened as wide as they could go, his pupils gathering in every speck of light they could fetch. He stopped often to try to pick out scents in the air and search for the particular smell of sulfur. It would be his best clue since it wasn’t a smell often encountered in a forest.

  Perce knew he was getting close as the sky began to lighten with false dawn. He recognized a pair of trees that were intertwined as though they’d embraced as they grew and refused to be parted. Dani had always called trees that grew together like that “kissing trees.” The blueberries were a kilometer or so away now to the north-northwest.

  Instinct halted him, the same creeping doom sensation that he’d felt just before the hell hounds attacked him and Dani slid up his spine and raised the hairs on his arms and neck. A whiff of sulfur itched his nostrils.

  The hell hounds attacked him from two directions at once. Their black bodies were camouflaged perfectly in the shadows of the trees but Perce’s preternatural eyesight picked out their movement and he had his knives out in both hands in time to meet the charge.

  He dropped down low, cutting upward with one knife as he swept the left knife to the side. One hound managed to twist away but the other had sprung and its leap carried it over and past Perce’s shoulder. His blade sliced into the hound’s underbelly behind its foreleg and it gave an inhuman, eerie cry.

  No time to worry about it as the hound landed and rolled away, still crying in pain. The other had regained its feet and turned. Perce threw himself at the hound, surprising it with his fast and vicious attack. He went for the neck and belly of the beast with both knives, slashing with his bodyweight behind it.

  The hound had been moving toward him and couldn’t reverse quickly enough. There wasn’t enough room for it to bolt sideways among the trees here. Black ichor sprayed over Perce’s arms as the hound shrieked and snapped at him.

  He danced backward in time to slash at its wounded companion which, limping and slowed, made another charge for him. Perce sliced a long shallow gash across the beast’s shoulder, turning it away again. He put his back against the nearest tree and went into a half-crouch as the wounded hounds whined and circled, not so confident now. Their eyes glinted red in the dim light as though lit from within and their drooling mouths were thick with far too many teeth.

  Perce bared his own teeth at them. The sky was getting lighter. The moon was going to rise soon. He didn’t have much time.

  The hounds were hurt, but Perce didn’t trust that he was fast enough to kill them both before one got him. He couldn’t get injured. He had to be strong and whole to get to Dani and Sophie, to have a hope of saving them.

  “Come on, you little demonic runts,” he muttered. “Come at me.”

  The hounds crouched but didn’t come closer, their ears flattened to their heads. One lifted its muzzle and howled. Somewhere deeper in the woods, an answering howl sounded. Other voices joined it. The rest of the pack.

  The hounds looked like they would just keep him cornered and wait him out.

  Perce shook his head. Not today. They were both injured. He wasn’t. The false dawn was brightening the wood enough that he could see quite well now that there was light returning to the world. If they wanted to wait, he’d be better off running.

  Only trouble was they were between him and the blueberry circle.

  No matter, thought Perce. He’d run, lose them hopefully, and curve back around in the right direction. This whole mess was taking away precious time but not as much time as being ripped apart by a p
ack of hell hounds would waste.

  Perce rose up from his crouch and slid around the tree, breaking into a mad run as soon as he was on the other side. He heard the eerie shrieking baying of the hell hounds as they crashed through the brush behind him. Stealth wasn’t an option anymore.

  He zigged and zagged, moving away from the sound of the hounds and away from the answering howls of their approaching companions. The wounded hounds were hurt enough that they fell farther behind, their cries getting quieter. Perce didn’t change speed, just direction.

  Curving to his right, he started moving in more or less the correct direction of the tower again, hoping the hounds wouldn’t cut him off.

  One had, the one whose belly he’d sliced. It charged out of the gloom to his right but its legs didn’t quite come underneath it enough for a proper leap.

  Perce dropped flat to the ground and rolled, coming up in a crouch. He saw the hound land from its half-leap and falter. Without thought, Perce sprang at it. He buried his knives into the hell hound’s neck just behind the ears with so much force he felt the blades grind on its bones. The red light died in its eyes as the hound gave one last gurgling cry and collapsed.

  He had to use his feet to brace himself enough to pull the blades free. Then Perce was running again, not stopping to clean his blades or catch his breath. Moonrise was coming and his sister and Sophie were still in danger.

  He dashed through the trees, sulfur and fear-sweat scents clogging his nose, as the baying of the hell hounds sounded in the not nearly enough distance behind him.

  Chapter Ten

  Every stair was agony on Dani’s leg. Her stitches had torn on both sides of the bullet wound and her feet slipped in the blood that started to flow again from her movements. Walking was possibly killing her, she realized, but since the alternative was lying down and waiting to be sacrificed in some demonic ritual, she figured walking to death wasn’t so bad.