“I don’t do fear, demon,” I spat at him. Inside I thought liar, liar, pants on fire. For a moment, I saw Tameron standing above me blood on his mouth, his eyes glowing into the night. Wow, he was good. I knew Tameron scared me more than any other Shadow-born. I wondered how he figured it out. Technically Dream-walkers are one of the easiest Shadow-born to kill. They have no fangs, just superhuman strength, claws, and the ability to scare you to death, oh yeah and that pesky regeneration. He was all healed up from my original strike. Damn.
The beasty narrowed those red eyes at me. “AoD,” it growled like it was a question. I nodded vehemently as I approached him. Then lunged, swinging the blade, but he moved at the last minute and made the angle all wrong. I caught his clavicle instead of his neck. Silver blood splattered me and the blade was stuck. He grabbed and the blade I could hear the sizzle of his flesh as it came in contact with the light. I couldn’t pull it free. I jerked it hard again, and he hit me with his free hand, close fisted this time, good God that hurt. I was just happy I hadn’t let go. My feet flew out beneath me and I would have toppled over the railing again if I hadn’t had such a good grip. I didn’t need to fall again. I was going to have that falling nightmare tonight as it was. I jerked again.
He struck out toward me with his big sharp claws. I moved just as he would have connected with my stomach. His claws sizzled the white light around me burning him. Well at least he’d think twice about grappling with me. I didn’t want to get clawed in my stomach. I needed to end this before he killed me. I let go of the sword. Damn thing was stuck tight anyway and wasn’t doing me any good.
He wobbled a little caught off guard by the fact that he no longer had to brace himself as I tugged at his shoulder blade. He fell back, pulled the sword out, and tossed it over the railing. His shoulder was healing up before my eyes and only oozed his bizarre silver blood now. Crap, I was in trouble. I stepped back and brought out my gun. I didn’t want to wake the people in the house but I wanted to die a whole hell of a lot less.
I took aim. He threw himself at me and pinned my right arm, leaving the question of shooting him purely academic. “What do you fear AoD?” He hissed with his voice holding a hypnotic quality. Images of Tameron began to dance through my head again. He was definitely not wearing his human suit. His eyes glowed, his fangs dripped menacingly. Again, I got the image of Tameron leaning over me instead of the Dream-walker his mouth sliding against my throat just as it had that night at Deception. I shuddered.
I shoved the bastard off me, but in doing so I managed to toss myself off the balcony we’d been vying for. I caught myself again. Unfortunately, I lost the grip on my Sig. This so wasn’t going my way. He moved with reptilian grace down the stairs toward me. I didn’t wait for him to get to me. The alleyway was only about two flights down now. My sword was down there. He had reached the same flight as me. “Time to die, AoD,” he hissed again as he clawed at me. I scooted back. He grabbed my ankle and dragged me toward him. He dug in his claws and I could smell his flesh burning, but he didn’t let go. I caught one of the old rails and held on for dear life. It held for about a second then snapped. Shit, he yanked me toward him. I hit him with the rail. What the hell, I didn’t have anything else to strike at him with. He howled and let go. I threw myself over the rail. I hurtled toward the earth and not incidentally my sword. I landed on my hands and knees. Ouch, I crawled toward my sword. The Dream-walker landed lightly behind me. My hand closed around the sword as he grabbed my ankle again, pulled me toward him, and raked his claws along my back. I screamed and kicked at him; I tried to dislodge him from my leg. He jerked hard and drew me toward him. I spun and brought the sword around with me. I hit him in the neck this time. It sliced through; he grabbed the blade with both hands and pushed it in the opposite direction, trying to stop me from making any progress. At least he wasn’t trying to claw me anymore. Finally, I punched through the spinal cord. Regeneration stopped and his eyes went wide. I kept shoving the blade through until I finally managed to severe his head. It fell from his shoulders and landed by my feet. His eyes wide with surprise, that black skin looked pearlescent in the light of the street lamps. Blah, to say it smelled bad would be the understatement of the year. But I had done it. I killed the monster.
The body started bubbling and melting and smelling worse than before, I gagged. For a moment, I thought I might be sick. This was a big deal for me; it was what I’d been raised for. It was what I’d been born to do. I gathered my strength and took shallow breaths so the smell didn’t make me feel any worse.
I climbed back up to the window to peer in. A little girl with big blond curls lay in the bed closest to the window. She clutched a teddy bear close to her chest. Tears lay drying on her little pink cheeks and I knew I had done the right thing. I hurt, and I was going to be bruised. I had bled, and I had just killed something that looked like a man, but I had to done the right thing. It felt good to be the AoD, thank God.
When I got to my jeep, I wondered how I was supposed to drive home without getting silver blood all over the interior, but after about three seconds of thought, I decided I just didn’t care. I’d steam clean it tomorrow. I climbed in and drove away.
At home, I showered, stumbled into bed and prayed for dreamless sleep. I never get what I ask for.
Chapter 7
I dreamt again this time my viewpoint was as if I were kneeling before a Shifters throne. The Shifter King was sprawled catlike and graceful across the massive red silk upholstered seat. His long brown hair spilled over the arm of his throne. His mouth was pinched in a cruel expression. “I assume you have something of importance to tell me Nikissos? As much as I know you enjoy the merits of kneeling before me, I am sure you do not enjoy my company, so out with it.” The Shifter’s harem spread around him like butterflies in a garden snickered. His men laughed outright.
I, well, the hand attached to the body I was seeing through pulled at the silver collar around our neck. Silver collar, ooh, somebody was in trouble. Most Shadow-born are at the very least allergic to silver, some find just contact deadly. The weird part was I could feel it burning like it was actually around my neck. I didn’t like this dream much. “The AoD left for Peru this afternoon, Lord Kinsley.” My mouth moved. Okay so the guy who’s body I was visiting was definitely a male. A male with a rough tired sounding voice.
Kinsley changed slightly at the mention of my father. His nose and mouth elongating, his teeth sharpening, his eyes turning that yellow wolfy color, making him look more animal than man. That would be why they are called Shifters. “And the girl,” he growled, his black eyes penetrating. I felt like a bird right after he realizes the cat’s there but just before the cat pounces. Yeah, like he was going to pounce on me and eat me whole-feathers and all. The girl? Ah, hell, that would be me, wouldn’t it? I was the only girl living in the AoD’s house.
Movement distracted me from my egocentric thoughts. His harem had begun to move away from him in very slow measured movements. My guess was they didn’t want to be in the direct path of an enraged Shifter any more than I did. I also guessed it wasn’t a good idea to move fast around something that had instincts that were more wolf than man.
My head, well I know it’s not technically mine, but the guy the King had called Nikissos, Nikissos’ head dropped. He bowed to the King, but he wasn’t happy about doing it. I could feel that collar burn against us again. The tile beneath us was a cream color with gold ribbons threaded through it. I bet it was expensive. Our mouth opened and shut several times as if we were trying to keep the information in, but it was fighting to get out just the same. “She remains,” he nearly spat. I got the distinct feeling this Nikissos fellow didn’t want to be answering any of Kinsley’s questions.
Kinsley leaned forward and pulled himself together getting rid of the dog boy look. “Excellent,” his smile was still rather wolfish. “Laith and his pack can finish her off tonight.” He said as if to himself. He certainly wasn’t paying attention to Nikissos anym
ore. I bet he was grateful. I wasn’t. He had just said he was sending some boys over to finish me off. Hadn’t I had enough for one night? I really didn’t want to fight a pack of Shifters. “Orson,” he called loudly. I started just a little as the Shifter’s voice carried in the tiled hall.
“Yes,” boomed a barrel of a man. Holy smokes. He was the size of a rhinoceros, but walking upright. He looked like a shaggy animal. His hair was brown and cut in that shaggy feathered look that was so popular this year. His eyes were the color of melted chocolate, but they were fixed in a squint. He must spend a lot of time glaring at the world around him. His clothing bespoke money. He wore pants perfectly tailored to his shape. Of course, I was willing to bet they didn’t make pants for a guy that size without some serious tailoring. His shirt and jacket were the same material and color of the pants. I sighed, I mean I know they are Shadow-born but anyone ever hear of brown, grey, hell even charcoal would be better than the monotone clothes set that seemed to be the uniform of the shadowed world.
The King smiled, his black eyes lighting up with malicious glee. “Go tell my son I wish to see him. I have something important for him to oversee.” He waved his hand dismissively at the giant. The big guy, Orson, he’d called him, lumbered away.
Then Kinsley stopped and looked down at us again. “Are you still here Dream-walker?” Dream-walker? I thought. What the hell? You mean I was dream walking a Dream-walker? How exactly did that work? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I’d killed one tonight. Maybe his blood covering me had triggered some kind of precog jumpstart. I wish I knew more about this precognitive dream thing. It wasn’t a power I had expected at all.
My dad didn’t have it, and I guess he’d forgotten my mom had. I wondered if the Dream-walker could sense me. I felt nauseous I just knew this wasn’t going to work out well for me. “You have served me well,” Kinsley’s voice was all smiles, but his eyes were harsh still. “I will reward you. Choose one of my ladies to entertain you tonight.” The women in question looked horrified briefly. Then almost in unison their heads dipped down so they could study the tile floor like it was a Rembrandt all of a sudden.
Nikissos’ voice was soft and full of pain. “As always you are generous but…” Kenley’s fist came down so fast on our face that he didn’t have time to finish his sentence. We fell forward toward the marble. I felt teeth piercing our bottom lip.
“Is there something wrong with my women?” Kinsley drove his fist into our face again. I knew Shifters were the strongest beings in the shadow world but damn this sucked. It was like being punched by a bullet train. Our mouth opened again but no sound came out as Kinsley struck again and again until our blood pooled around his feet. The Dream-walker didn’t even put up a token resistance, and he wasn’t healing like Dream-walkers were supposed to. I wondered if it had something to do with that silver collar around his neck. The blood spilled over onto our hands wet and sticky and silver in color. Huh, it always struck me as kind of funny that the blood of a Dream-walker was silver. Right now it wasn’t so funny.
We wavered, teetering on the edge of consciousness. Darkness crowded in. Black spots bubbled around our vision. “Get out of here before I forget why I let you live.” Kinsley hissed while licking the blood from his right fist.
He didn’t need to tell us twice. We beat feet toward the door with a speed that belied our injured state. I was glad to leave King Psycho just as quickly as possible. I bet Nikissos felt the same way. I actually felt bad for the poor bastard having to live like that. I made a mental note to put him out of his misery as soon as I possibly could. Nikissos headed down a hallway and pulled a key from his coat. It was steel and cool in our hand. He opened the door only to find a scrumptious looking man sprawled across the bed.
For a moment, I wished I had control of this body. Then I remembered I was in Shifter country and bestiality was not in my book of things to do before I died. Oh, and the body I was riding in was male. There’s no such thing as a female Dream-walker. They don’t come in girl. A girl child born of a Dream-walker was human. Heck a female born to a Dream-walker was more human than I was.
The man on the bed smiled up at me, and I thought maybe I should reconsider. “You look like hell,” he said. His voice all rumbley like a purring housecat. His blond hair was short in the back but spilled over his forehead in a very surfer-like lock. It was so blond it looked almost like snow against the dark maroon sheets.
“Your father is looking for you, Laith.” Nikissos answered as he went to a sink with a mirror over it. He really did look like hell. It was hard to see bruising on a face already pitch black, but there was no mistaking the streaks of silver that meant open wounds. Or, the slow slide of the silver fluid leaking from those wounds; wounds that should have been healed before he had unlocked the door.
Laith, aka yummy looking Shifter, rolling around in the Dream-walker’s bed said, “Yeah, I know. Came to tell you Good-bye. I’m not gonna do it. I’m not gonna kill her just because my old man hates her dad. Especially not that her, you know.” He paused, Huh? I thought. “Does she look like her?” He asked.
Nikissos shook his head no, “She resembles her father.”
The Shifter shrugged, “yeah, so I’m outta here.” He pushed himself away from the bed. He was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. He looked like an Abercrombie model. Yeah, they always look ready for bed. I was so happy someone had heard of a color other than black. He stretched and his shoulders popped as he moved. Muscles rippled underneath that t-shirt and I found myself shaking my head. It really wasn’t fair. I just wanted one okay looking human. Instead, I got man-candy a plenty in the form of critters that eat humans. It sucked. “Man this place is small. I wish I could take you with me. You’ve been a good friend.” He sighed holding out his hand. His nails were neat and his hands clean. “I’ll keep looking for a way to get that thing off your neck. I just can’t stay.”
Nikissos looked away from the mirror then nodded and took his hand. “May you avoid the Ao my friend.” He said taking the other man’s hand. I’d heard that was a pretty common form of salutation amongst the Shadow-born. I wasn’t offended I kind of hoped this guy avoided me too. It’s got to be hard to kill something when you keep tripping over your own tongue.
“You too,” the Shifter shook his hand, his eyes were filled with regret, but he left and Nikissos was alone.
He turned back toward the mirror. He wiped his face with a clean cloth. “You still in there, AoD?” He asked. Shit, he did know I was dream walking him. “I liked Iris. I didn’t want to kill her. I have done the only thing I could do for her now by warning her daughter. The Shifters are coming for you AoD. Be ready,” He pulled my mother’s locket from a drawer below the sink. “And for Shade’s sake, learn to block out Dream-walkers.” He opened the locket, and I was slammed back into reality.
Chapter 8
Great, I thought as I stumbled into the kitchen and flipped on the coffee pot. Shifters! Shifters weren’t all that much worse than Vampires except… except they traveled in groups of five to seven called packs. One on one a Vamp and a Shifter were evenly matched. I mean shifters were a little stronger, but they didn’t have that annoying mind control thing going on. Breathe, I told myself. This is what automatic weapons were for, right? I got into the hidden safe that kept all of our illegal weapons and had to admit I felt less scared with an oozy slung around my neck. God, that Dream-walker, Nikissos; he was the one who’d killed my mother. I so wanted to find him. I wanted to repay him for every moment of my childhood when I’d needed a mother and had been stuck with a loving but very male father.
The phone rang and I jumped about a foot. Great, just great, 6 a.m. and I was already jumpy. Boy, oh boy, I couldn’t wait until nightfall. It rang again. “Macyn,” I answered.
“Hey Macy,” Laurna’s voice was loud and crisp. Sometimes I hated her, “IHoP?” She asked brightly. Right now, I needed comfort and normality, and Laurna was as normal as it got.
&nbs
p; I took a deep breath. “You’re paying,” I answered.
She laughed, all bright and happy.
Grrrrrr, was there a word for killing your best friend like patricide was the word for killing your father. Was it like friendacide? Cause her happy ass was in the running. “K, fifteen,” she asked cheerfully.
“Need thirty,” I mumbled back. I needed a shower and coordinating a decent outfit that covered up the kind of hardware I was carrying took some work. I wasn’t worried about Laurna. The likelihood that Shifters would show up at IHoP was slim to none but just in case.
Maybe I should worry a little about her, I thought. “K,” she hung up.
I dressed; fortunately, it was cold outside so no one would question my long coat. The hostess looked like this was the end of her third shift. I tipped her for taking me to the booth. She looked at the cash and stuffed it in her syrup stained apron. Laurna was smiling still. I thought about leaving. “Your eye is black,” she commented, reaching out like she was going to touch it but not quite connecting.
I touched it, which was a mistake. OUCH!!! “Yeah, backs bruised too.”
She winced in sympathy. “Out fighting the evil dark last night?” She poured the coffee into both of our cups.
I nodded and loaded my coffee with sugar.
“So what’d you get?” She asked, leaning forward to hear the details.
I shrugged and opened the menu. I really didn’t want to sit around and discuss the killing I’d done the night before. I wanted to be able to eat without the memory of that terrible smell interfering.
She leaned forward spilling blond hair onto the table. “Come on tell me,” she begged. Her eyes were sparkling.
Into Death's Arms Page 9
