by Cutter, Leah
Tomorrow, Lukas might talk to Oma. Or he might not. Rudi would never pressure him about it. He’d already helped Lukas set up filters for his email and his phone, so he wouldn’t get pressured about it from anyone else either.
Rudi also wouldn’t make any decisions for Lukas. Not anymore.
Gauner gave a happy yip and bounded over to where Lukas sat, putting his front paws on the bench, his little pink tongue out and panting.
Lukas lazily reached over and scratched Gauner’s neck, getting a strong tail wag in response.
Yes, there was joy in being a hound. Changing still scared him, but Hamlin was there, and Rudi as well.
“You ready?” Lukas asked.
The hound looked at Lukas, then over his shoulder. He leaped back into the park, racing to greet the newest dog just coming in.
“Guess not.” Lukas settled back against the bench. The spring winds played with his hair, pushing against his jacket, carrying the first scents of cherry blossoms.
Later that night, Lukas would cook with Rudi again, gaining more of that purely human skill. Eventually, he’d have to call Oma. He wanted to learn more about the other guardian hounds, the shadows, maybe even Hamlin’s knight.
But he was done with secrets. He’d carried too many, for too long.
A young man walked toward the bench, carrying a mini pinscher puppy in his arms. He had soft brown hair and eyes, which kind of matched his dog.
When the young man sat down on the bench next to Lukas, Lukas’ heart gave a sudden lurch at the friendly smile.
He suddenly remembered his reaction to Virmal—and now, this very cute man.
Maybe Lukas still had one secret that he wasn’t willing to share…but just for now.
Mei Ling
Though Mei Ling’s plane landed after midnight, she was still up by five in the morning to walk to the market. Comforting Asian faces moved along the sidewalk with her. The wind carried the smell of thick chicken congee, rice, and fried pork. Waves of workers on black, sturdy bicycles rang their bells as they rode past her.
When Mei Ling turned the corner to the market, she was surprised to see the fortune-teller sitting there, as if she hadn’t moved, still dressed in a plain white, Western-style shirt and jeans.
However, her eyes held white cataracts now, instead of being blindly black, or even like the last time Mei Ling had seen her, with the illusion of being sewn shut.
The fortune-teller usually felt Mei Ling’s presence. But she didn’t even look up when Mei Ling stopped in front of her and said, “Good morning.”
Before Mei Ling could say anything more, a strong presence brushed up against her.
A tall Asian man stood on her left, his skin healthy and tan, his eyes dark, while a little bit of white flecked his sideburns. He wore an expensive, gray-mustard colored suit, with an appropriate navy blue power tie.
Mei Ling smiled at him. Everything about the man screamed power, money, and Other.
Though most of the crocodile clan were women, Mei Ling would bet this man was just like her. He wasn’t like the other clans she’d met; she knew he had very sharp teeth.
“She can’t see anymore,” the man said, his voice like black velvet.
“She never could,” Mei Ling pointed out. “She’s blind.”
“You know what I mean,” the man chided. “With her other senses.”
“What happened to her?” Mei Ling asked. Should she kill the girl? Would she thank Mei Ling for taking her away from this half-existence?
“The shadows took her,” the man said.
Mei Ling looked at the man sharply. “The shadows?”
“The shadows,” the man assured her. “We’ve long known about them, and dealt with them.”
“But the shadows are gone,” Mei Ling pointed out. “Shouldn’t she be…better?”
“Unfortunately, she ran into something much worse than the shadows.”
“Really,” Mei Ling stated flatly. The way the shadows had eaten at her that night on the field, tainting her mind, wrapping her soul in sticky webs—she didn’t believe there could be anything worse.
“Really.”
Mei Ling raised one expectant eyebrow.
“She met us,” the man breathed out.
Suddenly, Mei Ling found herself surrounded by tall men and women, all powerful, all wealthy.
All deadly.
The first man stepped closer. “This will hurt a bit. But there’s no pain afterward. Only peace.”
His eyes expanded, changing into dark holes from Hell that Mei Ling couldn’t look away from. She struggled to move, to breathe, to call up her twin, but not even her teeth were as sharp as the soul eater’s.
About the Author
Leah Cutter’s first three novels (Paper Mage, Caves of Buda, and The Jaguar and the Wolf) are all historic fantasies set in diverse periods of time, such as Tang Dynasty China, WWII Budapest, and the Viking era, respectively.
Her recent novels, (Clockwork Kingdom, Zydeco Queen and the Creole Fairy Courts, The Raven and the Dancing Tiger, and The Guardian Hound) are all contemporary fantasies, and set on the Oregon coast, in rural Louisiana, and around the city of Seattle, respectively.
Her short fiction includes fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and horror, and has been published in anthologies, magazines, and on the web. A collection of her recent short fiction is available in Baker’s Dozen. A collection of her mysteries, set in the same world with the same ghost detective, are available in The Shredded Veil Mysteries.
Read more stories by this author at www.KnottedRoadPress.com.
Follow this author’s blog at www.LeahCutter.com.
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