[Kassandra Lyall Preternatural Investigator 03] - Bloody Claws

by Winter Pennington

  The creature tried to pull me in again, and this time I pushed, but not with my body. I envisioned the waves that feared no stone, no high rock. Somewhere in my mind, I heard a raven cry, just as I had in the dream, but this time, it wasn't seeking aid.

  We were at war.

  I pushed the energy that built inside me into the vortex, into the crevice between the worlds the creature had torn open.

  Wind whipped my hair like angry lashes against my cheek; dampness clung to my skin and soul. A foul smell permeated my senses like the smell in the air after fireworks have been set off.

  Still, I shoved, trying to use the energy like a blade.

  But something wasn't right.

  Laughter rang throughout the room like a roll of thunder, making me wince.

  Arthur still had his arms around my waist. "Kass!" he screamed, the wind threatening to swallow his words.

  The wind whispered, "Not strong enough."

  The table legs scraped across the floor, the screeching barely audible beneath the roaring in my ears.

  I was doing something wrong. Every time I pushed outward, the wind picked up stronger than before.

  I was feeding the creature energy.

  With its hard grip still crushing my hand, there was too much contact for me to shield. I was too wide open.

  I shut my eyes, tight, blocking out the ocular sensory and focusing on Arthur bear-hugging my hips.

  Turn it around. I didn't know where the thought came from. I didn't know if it was my own. But suddenly, I understood. Or at least, I hoped I did.

  I breathed, and on the heavy intake of breath, I drew that burning smell into my lungs.

  "No!"

  The creature lashed out and the energy hit me in the center of my chest, stealing my breath in a mind-numbing rush of pain.

  If I had had the breath to scream, I would have.

  The creature flung my hand from hers and I was suddenly airborne.

  *

  I woke feeling the hard floor beneath me. Someone cradled my head in their lap and I looked up to see Lenorre.

  Her cold fingers stroked the hair away from my face. I was about to ask her if everyone was all right, when a sharp pain like a knife wound blazed to life in my chest. I turned, coughing, my body heaving and rejecting something. I scrambled to my hands and Lenorre's arm circled my waist.

  My body was thrust forward with the force of the heave. Something heavy and wet spilled from my mouth and I coughed, choking on some of it.

  The taste of metal and ash coated my tongue.

  Someone had brought a light of some kind into the room. The light illuminated the shiny liquid I'd vomited. Another fit seized me, and despite my best efforts not to, that stomach-turning noise emitted from my throat as I purged again.

  I groaned, pressing my hand to my stomach as if that would help me. I hate vomiting. Worse yet, Lenorre was still trying to hold me, stroking my hair back from my face.

  I opened my mouth to ask her to move when the urge hit me like another blow dealt to my midsection. I scrambled, not exactly sure what I was doing, but panicking and trying to move away from the growing puddle. My hand slipped in it and the only thing that kept me upright and not falling in my own vomit was Lenorre's arm around my waist.

  The world spun as she helped me to get to my knees, pulling me back against her.

  "Breathe, Kassandra," she said.

  I tried, in through my nose and out through my mouth. Everything inside me felt raw and singed. The air stank of burning flesh, making my stomach turn.

  Someone held a cup in front of my face. "Drink this, child."

  I took the paper cup Astrid offered. My body jerked again, against my will, but this time I managed to hold it down. Point for me.

  "Where's Arthur?" I asked. "Is he all right? What happened?"

  "I'm fine," he said, moving around the table to kneel beside me. "You look like shit. It vanished after tossing you like a ragdoll."

  "Thanks," I said. "It just left?"

  "For telling you that you look like shit?"

  "For grabbing me," I said.

  "You're welcome," he said. "I didn't want Holbrook jumping down my throat for letting whatever that thing was gobble you up. And yeah, it apparently didn't like playing with you. After you went down, everything stopped."

  "Your attack made it expend too much energy in defense. It couldn't hold its manifestation," Astrid said.

  I tried to take a sip of the water she had given me, but my hands shook too badly. I ended up wearing most of it. Lenorre took the cup from me, but before she could help me, Rosalin was suddenly there. "Let me," she said.

  Lenorre handed her the cup and I didn't protest when she helped me to take a drink from it, grateful to be washing out the vile taste in my mouth.

  Rosalin said, "Lenorre and I tried to come in. The door wouldn't budge. I would have been here sooner if there hadn't been a line of police officers rushing to get in the way."

  I nodded, taking another drink. My throat was raw, like I'd been screaming for days.

  Lenorre gently moved me away from my vomit, easing me slowly down into her lap far enough away that the smell eased slightly. I rocked back against her until I was sitting, not wanting to move anymore than that.

  "Well," I said, clearing my throat and looking at Astrid. "You're fey?"

  Arthur distracted her by pulling a chair up for her to sit in.

  "I believe you now," he said, offering a hand and helping her into the chair.

  "What happened?" I asked, once she was comfortably seated.

  "I'm part fey," Astrid said, "And it tried to attack my daughter."

  "Who's your daughter?"

  "She's the High Priestess of the Silver Crescent Coven."

  "Does she know Miranda and Landon Blevins or Leana Davey?"

  "Leana Davey is a member of her coven. Miranda and Landon, I do not know."

  "Ackerman," Arthur said, "bring Ms. Meadows's daughter, Belinda, in."

  Lenorre helped turn me to face the door. Astrid's daughter entered the room wearing a pair of faded jeans and turquoise turtleneck. She was a beautiful woman with light brown hair that fell straight almost to the crook of her arm. Her eyes were a reflection of her mother's, her lips full and brows high-arched. She spared the mess I'd left on the floor a glance. If she was startled or surprised by the current state of the interrogation room, she didn't show it. Point for her.

  Why hadn't she been in the room when I'd come in to speak with Astrid?

  I saw Astrid's hands moving fluidly in the air.

  Her daughter nodded and signed back. She was still signing when Astrid spoke.

  "Miranda and Landon had been to a few of the open circles, but they were not yet a part of the coven."

  "Does she know anything more about them?" I asked.

  Belinda came and knelt in front of me.

  My mother tells me I can understand you.

  I actually jumped where Lenorre held me.

  Was telepathy a capability of all the fey? Did I really want to know?

  What happened to you?

  Belinda touched my hand lightly.

  I was sleeping when the creature attacked. It tried to strangle me.

  She pulled the turtleneck down to show me the bruises on her neck.

  I did not think the cops would believe us.

  Did you see anyone aside from the creature?

  No, my mother and I guess that it attacked from a distance. It came to me as someone from the coven, someone I know well and am attracted to. I knew it was not her and it tried to kill me.

  Been there, I thought.

  My mother heard the dog barking outside. When she went to check, she found her with her belly cut from here-she put a finger at the top of her sternum-to here. The cut ended just below her navel. Whoever summoned the creature used her familiar's blood to feed the magic. We think, because they killed the dog in the backyard, they were outside the house when they summoned it.

&
nbsp; Is the dog still there?

  Yes, and we've notified the police. The detective said he sent someone out.

  "Arthur?"

  "Yeah, Kass?"

  "Get Forensics out to their house. Stat. Don't pussyfoot about this."

  "Kass, I trust you, but what the heck's going on?"

  "We're talking.That thing you saw earlier is growing in strength. It requires blood sacrifice. Get a team out there and investigate. Find some shoeprints, something. Whoever summoned it used the dog as a sacrifice."

  "Doesn't look like you're talking to me," he said, seeming to ignore everything else I'd just told him.

  "I'll explain later, Arthur. Just do it. Now."

  It was Ackerman who said, "I'm on it."

  Do you know what it is? I asked Belinda.

  Not really. My mother told me some of the stories that had been passed down to her when she was a child. The stories have been throughout our family for more decades than either of us can keep track of.

  So you were raised aware of your fey blood?

  Yes. She tilted her head. But that's another story. The creature is some kind of spirit trapped in the astral realm. Do you know what it is?

  I'm…friends…I hesitated to use the word, but what the hell. With one of the Daoine Maithe. She has informed me it's a type of lesser fey that was banished to the astral realm, a succubus or a night hag.

  Or an incubus?

  That too.

  She shook her head. I am at a loss for why someone would summon such a thing to attack anyone.

  Are all the members of your coven like you are?

  Fey?

  I nodded.

  No, but I know for a fact Miranda and Landon were. Only he, he was part elf. You look surprised.

  A bit. What about Leana?

  Leana is fey, though the blood in her is diluted. One of her ancestors allegedly was a siren.

  I touched her hand where it rested over mine. I wouldn't bother telling them about Leana. That was Arthur's dirty work, not mine.

  How did you stop it? I asked.

  I didn't. My mother did.

  Before I'd even asked the question, Astrid said, "I severed the link."

  "How?"

  Astrid smiled, her face crinkling. "You'd be surprised what a good ole sage bundle and a few choice words of banishment will do, girl."

  I thought of something and she must've caught the thought over my features.

  "Say it," she said.

  "If that's all you had to do to get rid of it, do you really think it was trying that hard for your daughter?"

  "What do you mean, girly?"

  I ignored the "girly" bit.

  "Shit," I said.

  "Shit, what?" Rosalin asked. I'd almost forgotten she was in the room.

  It was Lenorre who caught it first, who understood where I was going with the thought.

  She whispered behind me, "It is tracking you, Kassandra."

  "But how could it have known Astrid and her daughter would lead to me?"

  Belinda was watching my lips with unnerving focus.

  It is an astral being, she thought to me. They see and know more than we do.

  "It's true," Astrid said. "The scope of their sight from the astral realm is wider than ours."

  Peachy. Just fucking peachy. Thank you, Belinda.

  Belinda bowed her head and stood, moving to help Astrid rise from her seat.

  Astrid paused in front of me and pulled a chain out from under the collar of her shirt.

  "Take this," she said. At the end of the chain dangled a small silver seven-pointed star. A gem of black onyx was fixed in the middle of the star. "I think it belongs with you, Child of Morrigan."

  Before I could take the necklace from her, Lenorre took it.

  Astrid chuckled. "It's not silver."

  Regardless of her words, Lenorre stuffed the chain into her coat pocket.

  "Either way," she murmured against my hair, "I'd prefer Zaphara check to make sure it is safe for you to wear."

  "Good idea," I said. "I hope you're up for driving."

  Rosalin moved in to help me to my feet and I let her. "So it's my turn to cuddle you in the back?"

  "Sure, if the smell of brushfire is really your thing."

  CHAPTER twenty-one

  didn't find out until I tried to leave that Arthur wasn't going to let me. He offered a few times to take me to the hospital, and every time, I told him no. Lenorre and Rosalin were with me as we sat in his office. Arthur had closed the door to give us some privacy. I didn't know where Dan Holbrook, my old boss was, and frankly, I didn't particularly care to find out. After much cajoling, I'd managed to talk the younger cop I'd met the other day into bringing me a cup of coffee. He'd brought Rosalin a soda from the vending machine.

  Arthur was seated on the other side of his desk, his white dress shirt unbuttoned and his tie pulled loose.

  "Arthur," I said. "Stop looking at me like that."

  "Start talking, Kassandra."

  "About?" I asked, tilting my head with the question.

  "You know what," he said. "What the hell happened in there? What the hell were you and Ms. Meadows doing? What the fuck was that thing above the table and how is it you collapsed, woke up, painted the interrogation room floor with your blood, and are sitting there calmly in front of me as if nothing fucking happened?"

  "Are you about to have hysterics?" I asked.

  "Don't be a smartass, Kassandra. Not right now."

  I pulled my legs up in the seat, nursing my cup of coffee since it seemed he wasn't going to let me leave any time soon. Neither Lenorre nor Rosalin spoke, but Arthur shot them both an expectant look and asked, "Either of you going to tell me?"

  Rosalin shook her head, indicating she wasn't going to peep.

  Lenorre said simply, "The answers to the questions you ask are not mine to tell."

  "We told you what was happening, Arthur, as much as you needed to know. Astrid is part fey. She was using her energy to try and figure out what I am."

  "That doesn't tell me anything, Kassandra. And no, you really didn't tell me what was happening. You knocked my gun out of my hands and told me not to shoot."

  "If you had shot at it, Arthur, it wouldn't have done any good and someone in that room might've gotten seriously hurt. It was a battle of metaphysics, not weapons."

  "What the hell was Ms. Meadows talking about your magic?"

  "You know I'm a witch, Arthur."

  He leaned back in his seat, shaking his head. "Kass, I saw you move. I saw your eyes."

  "My eyes?" I asked. "What'd my eyes look like?"

  "Unlike you," he said. "I don't know. They didn't look right. They shouldn't have been that bright. I'm going to ask you again, what happened?"

  "You were in the room, Arthur. Astrid and her daughter are part fey. That's how they were able to protect themselves when they were attacked. When Astrid raised her energy to explore mine, it did something. I'm not sure what."

  "The night hag is stalking Kassandra and when Astrid combined her energy with Kassandra's, even briefly, I believe that energy blazed like a light by which to guide the being to her," Lenorre said.

  "Astrid said she was trying to shield me. Could you sense the energy?" I asked.

  Lenorre offered a slow nod. "She tried to camouflage your energy as soon as she sensed the creature, I think, for fear that it would use your energy to try and manifest."

  "But it didn't need my energy to manifest, Lenorre. It manifested even though she was shielding my energy."

  "So I believe," she said.

  "What are you two talking about?" Arthur leaned forward, and he looked more irritated and uncomfortable than I'd ever seen him.

  "The thing that attacked us in the interrogation room is a being that lives in the astral realm, Arthur, and it put some kind of metaphysical tracking device on Astrid or me and when she and I raised energy, it found us. Lenorre suspects that Astrid tried to shield me so that it couldn't feed psychical
ly off my energy and use my power to manifest in our reality. Are you following me?"

  "Explain power."

  "I'm using the words power and energy interchangeably. Every piece of life around you, from a plant to a person, has energy."

  "The Chinese call it ch'i," Rosalin said. "Life force."

  "Spirit?" Arthur asked.

  I nodded. "Pretty much. It's the life energy that flows throughout everything living. The Druids themselves were animists believing that everything that was a part of the natural world and living had a spirit, a rock, a tree, a flower, et cetera," I said.

  "What were you and Ms. Meadows doing to the table?" I pushed my hair up and held it, wanting some air on my neck.

  The room was stifling and I suddenly wanted to be outside. The fact that Arthur wouldn't let me leave was making me feel trapped. Not a good feeling after I'd been attacked in the same building. "The creature had used its energy to create a portal, Arthur. We sought only to close it."

  "Kass, the table was glowing as if you'd poured glow-in-thedark paint all over it."

  "We were using energy."

  "I've never seen anything human use energy like that."

  I released my hair with a heavy sigh. "I'm not human, Arthur. There, are you happy?"

  "What are you? Are you like Ms. Meadows and her daughter?"

  "Yes, Arthur. I'm part fey."

  He looked as though he didn't believe me, but after a moment, he said, "That explains your height."

  "It has little to do with my height," I said. "The fey, like humans, come in many different shapes and sizes. The creature you saw earlier was fey too."

  "All these years," he said, "and you never told me. Why?"

  "It doesn't change who I am, Arthur, and I didn't know myself until recently."

  He pushed his chair back and stood, pacing the small area behind his desk. "That's how you're able to sense things and catch things we'd miss." He seemed to be talking to himself, so I didn't offer up a response. He stopped pacing. "What can you do?"

  "That's a personal question, Arthur. I'd rather not answer it. I'm still human," I said.

  "I can't tell if you're in denial or if you're trying not to creep me out," he said.

  "What do you mean?"

  "You were vomiting blood, Kassandra, and not just a little bit of it. Most humans wouldn't be standing after that."