The DarkWorld SkinWalker Series Box Set Vol II: The SkinWalker Series Books 4, 5 & 6: Blood Promise, Scorched Fury, & Fate's Edge (DarkWorld: SkinWalker)

by T. G. Ayer

  I grunted, then headed down the hillside and out of the trees.

  “So what’s our cover story?” asked Lily, tramping behind me.

  “Sisters? Taking a road trip?”

  “How do I explain not being in school?”

  “You’re not as young as you look?” I said, raising my eyebrows. At her smirk I said, “Sorry, you’re the one who wanted to tag along.”

  She stuck out her tongue and we continued to pick our way toward the narrow strip of grass. “Anyway, sisters on a road trip is probably a better cover than a loner.”

  “Yeah, especially considering you look a little too badass to be safe.” I raised my eyebrows, amused.

  “Probably the BO.” Lily snorted then evaded a loose punch that I aimed at her shoulder. We were laughing as we got to the sand, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

  A girl approached from the other side of the beach, her eyes narrowed against the harsh morning light.

  “You think that’s her?”

  Her dark clothes were more goth than even Lily could hope to be. From her shitkickers which she hadn’t bothered to remove on the sand, to the chains on her purple and white checked skirt, to the spiderwebbed fingerless gloves and the dark eyeliner, she was the quintessentially goth girl. And beautiful.

  Even the streaks of indigo and mauve and teal in her hair only helped to make her look just perfect.

  “Could go either way. Although how many people lurk around on the beach, alone at sunrise.”

  For a twin of Logan, her hair was dark, but a more than cursory glance at her roots confirmed it as a wig.

  Not hiding out?

  “Be careful okay?” I said to Lily from the side of my mouth. “If it’s her then she’s more powerful than Logan.”

  “And more dangerous,” said Lily dryly before she gave Sienna a shy wave, accompanying it with a shy smile. “Hi.”

  Lily’s breathy, hesitant greeting put a smile on the girl’s face, and she drew to a stop.

  “Hi.” She glanced at me, then back at Lily. “You guys not from around here?”

  Lily shook her head. “Nope. We’re from Nebraska. We saw this photograph on this site online - you know the one people post photos on from their travels?”

  Goth girl nodded, a little smile turning up her mouth. Lily must have taken an acting class somewhere along the line because I could have sworn her accent was taking on a little bit of a country lilt. “Saw the photo and had to see it for ourselves. And boy are we glad.”

  “It is a beautiful place,” she said softly. “Are you here for a while?”

  I shook my head. “Just a few days.” Sticking my hand out I said, “I’m Kai O’Neil. She’s my sister Lily.”

  I wasn’t sure why I used our real first names, from the widening of Lily’s eyes I could tell she was more than amused at my made-up last name. She could hardly blame me. I’d totally forgotten about names and had to come up with something on the fly. So much for smart and experienced super-agent.

  “Sienna Blake.” So it was her. “You guys came at the wrong time of the year if you wanted to work on your tans.” She grinned, allowing a cheeky smile to come through. She sounded relaxed, but I caught an edge of tension.

  I waved my hands. “Are you kidding. I like my butt unfrozen, thanks.”

  Sienna laughed. “You and me both,” she said with a sigh as she turned to gaze back at the water. “It makes me sad that I can’t go in. The water is so calming. So peaceful.”

  She spoke wistfully, her voice so filled with yearning that I wondered what it was she longed for so deeply.

  “So where’s a good place around here to grab some breakfast?” asked Lily, making me laugh.

  “Is that all you think of?”

  Lily glared at me. “Food is the most important thing in the world. Besides, we haven’t had breakfast yet. I’m starved.”

  I made a face. “Ugh. I can’t think of anything worse than eating this early in the morning.”

  “You can have a coffee then,” said Lily as if she’d decided on the whole thing.

  Sienna smiled and pointed south. “There’s a small strip mall a few minutes that way. I’ll give you a ride there if you like.”

  I nodded then stared out at the lighthouse. From a distance it appeared perfect, but now that we’d gotten closer, or maybe it was the shifting of the sun, I could see the broken walls, the toppled bricks and crumbling mortar.

  “What happened to the lighthouse?”

  Sienna’s smile faded. “It’s tragic local lore.” She turned and headed up the sand, slow enough that we could hear her continue with her tale. “Five decades ago, a local fisherman’s wife would come here to watch for her husband’s return. One morning it was storming, waves six feet high and deadly. She battled the spray and the rain to get to the lighthouse, even lit the flame to warn her husband of the danger. But it was too dark, or she was too late, or fate had other plans, and his boat crashed onto the shore as she watched. He drowned before her eyes.”

  “What did she do?” whispered Lily.

  “She jumped,” Sienna said simply, before walking off.

  At the top of the hill, Lily followed Sienna while I paused to study the lighthouse. Waves smashed against the shores, sending fine spray reaching up to coat the rocks above. I could imagine the place, draped in the darkness of the storm, angry waves lashing out at the rocks. Claiming the boat and the man. And then the woman too.

  Maybe it was the darkness of the tale or the fear within me of losing Logan, but as I stared out at the water I felt a deep, unequivocal sense of loss. I blinked away the hot rush of tears and clutched the strap of my rucksack so tight I could feel the imprint of the nylon on my palms.

  Get it together Kai.

  I took a breath and followed the girls.

  Chapter 22

  We sat in a small ice-cream shop that had probably once sold milkshakes for a dime and soda for much the same. The place was small, the walls painted a pale pink, furniture mostly chrome and pink, a very feminine version of the Hard Rock Cafe.

  I stared at the customers as they streamed in, as if the day was sweltering and they were in desperate need of something cool to soothe their parched throats.

  Sienna had claimed a small errand, leaving us to order, and was now weaving back through the morning rush to our table, her expression slightly strained.

  Lily had decided that waffles were a suitable breakfast and oddly enough I agreed with her and had ordered my own. Maybe the run from Chicago had taken my strength. I ate quietly, listening to Lily maneuver answers from Sienna with such ease that I was beginning to realize I’d underestimated my sidekick.

  “I’ve always wanted to see the world. What’s it like out there?” She tilted her head, her eyes gleaming. She seemed different, harder somehow.

  I frowned. “You make it sound like it’s another world.”

  She laughed and spooned strawberry ice-cream into her mouth. “Sometimes it truly feels that way.” She waved a hand at the shop and then pointed at the street through the glass window. “We’re just a small town. And sometimes it all seems so … claustrophobic. And yet to others it feels so filled with freedom. Probably just depends on one’s personal outlook I guess.” Her tone was forced and I frowned as I studied her face.

  “Would you want to leave? See the world?” I asked, sharing a quick glance with Lily.

  Sienna lifted a shoulder. “Maybe. I guess if I knew there was something worth seeing.” She sighed so deeply that is sounded like she too had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her purple strands lifted on a gust of wind brought in as a new customer entered. “Sometimes I feel like there’s something waiting for me out there, you know. Like I have a purpose that’s more than just life here.”

  Her sigh seemed to bring me down a notch or two. The girl had been ripped from her only family, spirited away to this tiny little town so far away. It wasn’t surprising that her spirit yearned for him.

 
I reached over and held her hand.

  “Sometimes all we can do is follow our dreams.” I smiled, but I had to force my lips to hold the gentle curve. Force my eyes to reveal only pleasant grace.

  While inside, my mind and gut were in turmoil. Something was so very, very wrong.

  My throat began to close, cutting off my air supply and I took a discreet breath, maintaining my composure.

  I kept my smile bright and gaze neutral even though I knew that this woman, whoever she was, was not Sienna Westin. Not anymore.

  She was a ShapeChanger, using her mage power to veil herself with Sienna’s face and body. She had no idea who we were, but she was testing us.

  We had to be very careful.

  But I also had to ensure that she had no idea that I was onto her.

  So I relaxed against the back of the booth and played with my ice-cream, spooning and talking, as the room grew warmer.

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey Lil’s. We need to find a place to stay. Bryan will send out a search party if we don’t make that Skype session.”

  Without a blink my trusty sidekick nodded. “Oh, yeah. I could so do without him nagging me today.”

  “Who’s Bryan?”

  I paused, praying that we both didn’t answer at the same time. But Lily pretended to be searching for something in her backpack.

  “Bryan’s my husband. He didn’t even want us to take this trip. Two girls on their own, seeing the sights. So that means he’s super worried.” I rolled my eyes. “Makes us Skype every night. Swears he’ll call the cops if we’re so much as one minute late.”

  “Men,” said Lily, giving an inelegant snort.

  Faux-Sienna snorted too. “Yeah. Can’t live with them . . .”

  “Can’t live without them.” Lily and I laughed loudly and Faux-Sienna joined in. Her mirth was fake and she failed to hide her annoyance.

  She scooted along the seat and pouted. “I’m really sorry, but my brother will be waiting for me back at the house. I promised to go sailing with him.” She paused as if she expected us to look back at her, aghast at the mention of a brother.

  When neither of us even registered a raised eyebrow or a suggestion of a blink, she got to her feet. And that’s when I saw it. The strange shimmer around her body. Invisible in the bright sunlight, but to a trained eye, a dead giveaway.

  We waved her off, bright smiles blooming even as she left the shop and headed outside to a waiting limo.

  As the car disappeared down the street, Lily opened her mouth. But I lifted a finger and she clamped her jaws shut slowly.

  “I’m pooped,” I said leaning against the back of the seat.

  “But we just got here,” whined Lily, raising her voice for good measure.

  “We can find a place to crash, then we can go exploring okay?”

  “You’re so boring,” Lily said, rolling her eyes as she slouched and slurped on her milkshake.

  “We can always go back home,” I suggested airily.

  “No way. We just got here.” Whining again.

  “So behave. Let’s walk this junk food off then find an information center to see what’s interesting around here.” I used a bossy, overbearing tone that made the people at the table beside us hide their grins.

  “I knew I should have gone to Lake Tahoe with Bree and the girls,” Lily grumbled, getting to her feet and grabbing her rucksack a little too hard. The guns clinked together as the bag bounced against the seat.

  I curbed the instinctive urge to give the bag a concerned look, and Lily a much more annoyed one. Instead, I gathered my things and headed outside.

  Lily was right behind me, scanning the streets with curious touristy looks. We maintained the cover of two sisters on a tour of the little town.

  At the end of the street, Lily glanced down at her phone, a strange look on her face.

  “What?” I whispered.

  “You know how the intelligence people can clone phones and shit.”

  “Yeah?”

  “What if they did that to ours?”

  “If they did, what would they find out?”

  She looked up at me, wary, worried. Scared.

  “Geez Lil’s did you rob a bank or something? You’re getting all jumpy about nothing.” I grabbed her sleeve and tugged. “Let’s go find a place to stay. I want to soak in a tub for a while.”

  We headed off the main strip, turning right into a stunning road that was the epitome of fall perfection. Leaves of every color from brown to russet to gold covered the sidewalk and much of the streets.

  “Doesn’t look like people sweep their streets around here,” said Lily as she looked around.

  “It’s gorgeous,” I said, a threatening note to my words. There was something strange about the street, and the edge to Lily’s voice told me that she was not oblivious.

  “Of course it is. But it looks like home, Kai. I wanted to go somewhere different.”

  “Like where,” I played along, a little distracted.

  “Bali maybe?”

  “What’s in Bali that’s so fascinating?”

  Lily just shook her head. We were both tiring of this game. The run had drained us and the shock of feeling the energy of the mage had taken its toll on me too. We needed a place to lay low, and I wasn’t sure we’d find it here in the town. I was beginning to feel like we were caught in some kind of time-warp.

  “Okay.” We paused at a wooden bench and wiped off a layer of leaves. “See if you can find a place to stay,” I said as I slid the dagger a fraction of an inch from its sheath. It didn’t indicate any danger and as I held my phone to it, I could see no paranormal interference. I knew the dagger wasn’t a glorified paranormal detector but I’d hoped it would sense any form of danger.

  With no luck I figured I’d call Baz.

  He answered on the second ring. “Hey, honey,” I said, laying on the sweet, hoping he’d play along. My tone was pitched higher than normal so I hoped he’d sense something was up.

  “Hey you,” he said. I could almost see his dark brows rise in confusion.

  “Bryan, I know we said we’d Skype tonight but we need to find a place to stay first.”

  “Nothing yet?” he asked.

  “Nope. We almost found something but we were wrong. Reception here is sketchy.”

  “Want me to look for something for you?”

  “Yeah. A bed and breakfast place would be nice. Something without bugs please.”

  “Oh, yeah. Sure.” I almost heaved a sigh of relief when he got what I meant.

  I heard him tapping away. Then he said, “You’re clean. And in case you weren’t, I set a rerouter on your phone. They can’t tap it but they’ll be able to follow it. Only they’ll be looking in Timbuktu and Shenzhen first.”

  “Thanks. Did you find anything else?” No time to waste.

  Lily was still sitting beside me on the park bench, fiddling with her phone. I listened to Baz, pulling my panther senses to the surface, scanned our surroundings. As far as I could tell there was no one on the street or close enough to leave a scent. Unless of course they had had the presence of mind to stay downwind.

  That would mean that they knew who we were. What we were.

  Baz grunted. “There is a good possibility that you’re in the wrong place.” When I said nothing, he responded. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. We knew that there was a good chance that this was a wild goose chase. You can only do so much.”

  I caught myself quickly as I realized we’d forgotten exactly what type of conversation we were meant to be having. “Look, we’ll come straight back home. But there’s one thing that I need to do before we leave.”

  “What’s that?” asked Baz, worried now, probably imagining some hare-brained scheme. The guy had no faith.

  “Nothing much. I just saw something . . . interesting.” Lily and I shared a worried glance.

  He promised to send us any further information, and I rang off, sliding the phone b
ack into my pocket as I got to my feet. “Lil’s, we need to make tracks.”

  Her agreement glowed in her eyes. We both knew it was time to call timeout.

  Chapter 23

  We both got up and began to walk away from the strip to the edge of town. Once there we’d drop into shifter speed and get out of there.

  A few feet ahead was an old house, and as we drew closer I noticed the garden. The roses drooped, heads, dried and dark. A tulip-type plant that glowed with a strange purple luster seemed to dominate the entire garden.

  The flower distracted me, so the woman seemed to appear out of nowhere, her glamor draped over her like a gown. “Can I help you ladies?” she asked, smiling widely. Wide enough that I made out the strangely smooth teeth, the too unblemished skin, the reed slim form to her body.

  I glanced at Lily, wondering if she noticed but she seemed oblivious.

  “Yes, we’re looking for a place to get a room. Could you direct us please?” I had to come up with a response out of the blue. First the ShapeChanger and now a Fae? Something was up in Sand Beach.

  “Not from around here I take it?” she asked. I shook my head, refusing to say more. “There’s one down the road, about two blocks on the left. That’s Mari Santiago. She’ll make you comfortable.”

  “Thanks,” I said, herding Lily out of the small garden and down the road. “What’s wrong with you?” I hissed in her ear once we were well away from the garden. The Fae still stood at the open gate, staring at us.

  “Nothing. I was just too shocked to say anything. Besides Tara and Gracie, I’ve never seen a Fae before.”

  “That wasn’t her real form.”

  “You can see her too?”

  I frowned. “See her too? What do you mean?”

  Lily shrugged. “I thought you could see what she truly looked like.”

  “I can see past glamor yes, but her magic was strong. It’s not common to have sight that strong, even in a Walker.”

  Lily shrugged. “Well, I could see her anyway.”

  “Wow.”

  “What’s wow about it?”

  I pinched her arm. “You have the Sight. Wait until I get back home. Mom and Grams will faint when I tell them.”