A harsh, painful sound tore the silence apart and she stilled, shocked that she could make such a sound or that it was possible to feel so much pain without being wounded. Broken ribs had not hurt this much.
A shiver of the building’s wards brought her to her feet, limbs not working as smoothly as they should. She was about to have more visitors.
She scrubbed her face with her hands and went to the door.
Tamara’s wide smile loosened some of the ice inside her. One of the warmest-natured people Arrow had ever met, it was impossible not to respond to that smile, Tamara’s generous nature a sharp contrast to her mate’s stern demeanour. Matthias Farraway was absent, though, no doubt on some duties for his father, the shifkin Prime.
Arrow’s lips curved in response, fractures coursing through her as Tamara’s smile faded to a slight frown. The ‘kin tilted her head, looking her up and down.
“You look like you’ve had a hell of a day. Want to help me catch some bad guys?”
“Let me get my coat.” Arrow turned to go back into the building.
“Boots would help too, and your bag of tricks.”
CHAPTER 2
Arrow tried, and failed, to keep up. Tamara ran like the graceful predator she was, even in human form, flowing effortlessly around yet another corner into a narrow alleyway between buildings only to immediately fling herself sideways, striking the wall, the flat crack of a gun firing making Arrow pause before following Tamara’s headlong flight into the alleyway. The shifkin had much faster reflexes. And Arrow had damped her wards down, not wanting to draw attention in Lix. A routine pick up, Tamara had said. Someone the Lix muster wanted to question. Should be fun, Tamara had said.
From the broad grin on Tamara’s face, at least one of them thought this was fun.
Arrow’s lungs were burning with effort, pulse thudding in her ears, legs wobbling slightly with the unexpected exercise. They must have run six blocks through the city after this surprisingly fleet-of-foot, foolish human.
The human in question was above them now, still trying to escape, climbing a metal ladder attached to the run-down red brick building that formed one side of the alley. He paused about one storey up, turning. There was a dark blot in his hand. Weapon.
“Get his gun, would you?” Tamara was not even breathing hard.
The human fired again, missing even though Tamara was standing still, just in front of Arrow. A shield for the mage. Arrow could not think of that now. She needed only a few moments to recite the necessary spell, sending a targeted, concussive shock into the human’s arm. As soon as Arrow released her spell, a tight fist-sized ball of silver power lifting her hair as it passed, Tamara was moving to the ladder. The human squealed as the spell struck. Pain and anger combined. He dropped the gun. It fell into Tamara’s waiting hand and she kept moving. Seeing a determined shifkin chasing him still, he turned to the ladder, rising faster than Arrow would have expected. Tamara followed.
Arrow went after them, hoping the ladder would hold their combined weight. It creaked ominously under her boots and she moved a little faster, legs and arms aching by the time she reached the top. She had not realised she was so unfit. Or perhaps Erith-trained mages were simply not meant to keep up with shifkin.
Thankfully this building was only four storeys high. The last one had been eight. Or perhaps ten. She could not recall. It had been an external staircase that time. Lots of stairs. A lot of stairs, Tamara’s face lit with joy at the chase.
Arrow paused at the top of the ladder, breath coming in noisy gasps, sweat trickling down her back under her leather coat. Apparently leather was not sensible to wear when chasing people. She would need to remember that. She took a moment to assess the roof before moving on. It should have been flat and featureless, but was littered with packing crates, cardboard boxes and a few chairs as well as a strong smell of human alcohol. But no Tamara. At least not visible.
The quiet, furious sounds of a struggle drew her attention to the largest pile of packing crates and she forced her aching legs up onto the roof, gathering her wards as she cautiously crept around the side of the crates.
Tamara had their quarry neatly tied up, ropes around his ankles and wrists and a makeshift gag of some sort stuffed into his mouth. Part of his shirt, Arrow thought, seeing torn fabric.
“There you are.” Tamara was cheerful, showing no sign she had been running. Arrow wanted to collapse onto the nearest chair and not move for a while.
“This is definitely the one?”
“The one and only.” Tamara got to her feet and gave the human what she might have intended to be a slight nudge, but her toe sent the human sliding over the roof surface. “Thought he could cheat the muster.”
“Very foolish.”
“We need to get him back to the muster house for questioning.” Tamara casually lifted the man by his belt. A very painful process, judging by the human’s bulging eyes and squeals behind the gag. She set him across her shoulder, his head bumping against her back, and looked around. “There we go.” There was a doorway to the roof that Arrow had not spotted before. Tamara set off, her pace not hindered at all by the additional person she was carrying, Arrow following, trying to keep her breathing under control as much as possible, taking stock of the various crates and boxes they walked past. She stopped, seeing something that looked familiar, reading the labels more carefully.
“These are stolen goods,” she noticed. The shifkin had access to the human law enforcement bulletins, and Zachary had made sure that Arrow was copied into them. He thought she might find it interesting. Or so he said. She did find it interesting. She had not known how much crime humans were capable of. The packing crates they were walking between had featured on several news bulletins.
“So they are.” Tamara looked around, lips twitching. “There’s a huge finder’s fee for some of this stuff.” She pulled out her mobile phone and sent a quick text. “Some of the muster will be along soon to take inventory.”
The journey back to the muster house was uneventful. If one discounted the stares and mutters from the humans they passed, all giving Tamara and her wriggling burden a wide berth. A few humans, brave or incredibly foolish, Arrow was not sure which, tentatively approached her, enquiring in high-pitched voices as to what authority she had for manhandling the human. Tamara answered them all with the same easy grin and short response: the human had tried to deceive the muster.
“I am not sure that frightening humans is quite the thing to do,” Arrow observed.
Tamara chuckled. “No, it’s not really. But we’re known as fair trading partners. Fair runs both ways.”
“Tamara,” Arrow began, more hesitantly. The ‘kin turned, mischief back in her face. Arrow sighed. “You should not stand in front of bullets.”
“I’ve got body armour. You don’t. Besides. This idiot couldn’t hit the side of a building.” Tamara gave Arrow a sunny grin and continued on her way.
“I have wards,” Arrow protested, shaking her head slightly.
“Give me body armour any day,” Tamara answered over her shoulder.
Arrow hoped that Matthias would not find out about that particular moment. Arrow’s own heart skipped a bit, remembering Tamara standing, straight and still, as the human pointed a gun at them. It was true that the bullet would most likely do more damage to Arrow than to Tamara, even without body armour. But it was doubtful that Matthias would see it that way. Tamara and Matthias were equally protective of each other and Arrow did not want to get in the way.
After a month of working for the shifkin, the muster house was a familiar place. A large, red brick building, in immaculate repair, it sat at the edges of the city, close to the open land that the ‘kin claimed as their own. Despite the ‘kin’s nature as master predators, Arrow always found the building to be a peaceful place. Polished wooden floors, pale painted walls and minimal decoration, everything was kept clean and neat. The Lix pack was fairly small, as far as Arrow could tell. Perhaps thirty ‘ki
n in all.
There were always about half a dozen ‘kin in the house. A few greeted her as she followed Tamara through the double doors and she returned the greetings with an unfeigned smile. The ‘kin accepted her. They did not judge her mixed heritage. They did not call her names, or harm her. It was not a home, in the way a human would say it, but it was a place she felt comfortable.
Tamara dropped the human in the muster leader’s office. Actually dropped him. Simply let him go so he fell onto the wooden floor with a thump that made Arrow wince in sympathy, the human unable to break his fall thanks to the ropes. From the expression on the muster leader’s face, he and his enforcer had plans to make the human’s stay even more uncomfortable. They would not seriously wound, or even kill, the human. Arrow knew that. The shifkin held to the treaties they had with the humans. The human wriggling on the floor did not appear to know that.
Tamara closed the door behind them as they left. Like all ‘kin buildings, the walls and doors were soundproofed, so Arrow could not hear anything more from the room.
“Told you it would be fun,” Tamara said.
“It was most interesting,” Arrow answered. Tamara’s grin took over her whole face.
“You’re useful to have around. Come on, there’s hot pies and beer somewhere in here. I can smell them.”
Arrow blinked, both at the odd combination of refreshment and at the casually-thrown invitation. For all that the ‘kin welcomed her, she had never been included in a social engagement before today. Tamara turning up unannounced at her door earlier in the day had been unusual, but Arrow suspected that Tamara had not needed any help and that she was, instead, a little bored. Matthias was in Hallveran, assisting the local muster in settling the city after the recent disturbance and had, apparently, refused to take Tamara with him.
Tamara was a few paces ahead, following her nose to some combination of smells Arrow had not detected. They were in the main part of the muster house and it was oddly deserted, which set Arrow’s skin prickling, defensive wards shimmering, reacting to possible danger. She drew a breath, keeping her wards close to her and invisible. It was a necessary discipline in the human world. Humans were exceptionally good at sensing threats, even when they could not identify the source.
There was no sinister threat. Just an angry ‘kin male standing a short distance away in the entrance hall to the building, silhouetted against daylight. Matthias was dressed head to toe in close-fitting black. He might not be openly carrying weapons, but his scowl alone was enough to make Arrow stop and stay very still, not wanting that scowl turned on her. Her stomach twisted. She had seen enough angry males for one day.
Ahead, Arrow saw Tamara check in her stride, apparently surprised to see her mate. Arrow knew that was a lie. Tamara would have been able to sense Matthias’ presence a long time before she saw him, with the innate ‘kin magic she possessed.
“Matt! How lovely!” Her voice was light, airy even, but Arrow took an involuntary step back at the bite under the words. The last thing she wanted was to step into the middle of an argument between mates.
“Tamara.” Matthias’ growl raised the hairs on Arrow’s neck even though his anger was not aimed at her.
“So glum,” Tamara teased, teeth flashing in a parody of a smile. Arrow edged a few more paces away, wondering if she could quietly make her exit.
“Arrow.” Matthias’ voice had changed, becoming a polite acknowledgement. “Did you enjoy the day?”
“It was interesting. Although I do not particularly like running, I find.” Arrow said honestly, keeping her voice steady despite a healthy fear that Matthias might ask about bullets. Tamara was behaving oddly. Matthias even more so.
“We were heading for pies and beer.” There was nothing in that statement that should have been a challenge, but something in Tamara’s tone and posture made it the opening to combat. Arrow opened her mouth to deny any such arrangement, wanting no part of their conflict, and closed it with a snap when Matthias looked down at his mate, white bracketing his mouth.
“Beer?” There was weight behind that one word that would have made any sane person pause.
“Alright.” Tamara’s shoulders stooped a fraction. So little that if she had not been looking for cues, Arrow would have missed it. “Maybe not beer. But definitely pie.”
Arrow’s attention sharpened. There had been something different about Tamara. A slight shift in her personal scent, a slight thickening of her waist, an aversion to coffee when they had taken a break earlier, which Arrow did not understand. And now no beer. The puzzle pieces snapped together in Arrow’s head, finally, and she wanted to leave even more than ever. They had been shot at, and she had been too far behind Matthias’ mate to help. Even worse, Tamara had stood in front of her whilst the human fired.
“I’ll get you pie,” Matthias promised. And nothing in those words should have made Arrow feel she was intruding on a private moment, but her face heated and she wished very much to be elsewhere, Matthias’ fury vanishing into intensely personal, gentle warmth.
“Sure you’re not too busy?” Tamara was not finished with her challenge.
“Pa is dealing with it.”
Tamara stilled for a moment, then all the fight went out of her. Arrow drew a slow, careful breath. The shifkin Prime was dealing with business he had assigned to his son, allowing his son to travel to be with his mate. The Prime was cunning and determined in the protection of his people. And that included looking after them, even when they behaved badly.
“Oh.”
The word hung between them for what seemed an age, Arrow’s feet twitching in her boots, wanting to move.
“Arrow, are you staying?” Matthias lifted his eyes briefly from his mate’s face and Arrow caught the edge of the heat in his gaze before his expression shifted back to polite inquiry.
“No, thank you. There are things I need to deal with at the workspace.” Even after a month she could not call it home, the human word for places they stayed. And it was not a residence, the Erith word. It was the place she slept and worked, so she called it the workspace, even in her mind.
“We can give you a lift,” Tamara offered, head turning from Matthias. Her body was curved into her mate’s, aligned so that, even a foot apart, they stood firmly as a couple. All the anger and combat had vanished.
“I like to walk,” Arrow answered honestly. Shifkin could smell a lie as easily as she could read magic. “And it is not far. Good day to you both.”
She checked her impulse to bow, still close to the surface. Too many years among the Erith and too short a time outside their ungentle care for the habit to have left her.
She was not sure that Tamara and Matthias noticed, too caught up in whatever wordless communication was passing between them. Arrow glanced back, just once, before they were out of sight and they were still standing, barely touching. A pair about to become three. Or possibly more. Multiple births were possible.
Arrow’s chest hurt. Sorrow and loneliness and longing combined. There had never been a moment when she had stood so close to another person that they made up her entire world, with no barriers between them. Had never been a place where she fitted so completely as Tamara and Matthias fitted together. She thought she had set aside that wish, for now, but the awkward visit from Kester earlier, that she still did not understand, and the ‘kin pair brought it back, a sharp, bitter twist under her breastbone. She turned away with a sting in her eyes, glad of the walk to settle her mind and distract her.
~
Night fell as she walked slowly back to the workspace, the warmth of an unexpectedly sunny day vanishing into the dark, making Arrow wish she had put on a warmer coat. Or remembered her gloves at least, walking with her hands shoved into her pockets, the street lights casting everything into orange and yellow tones.
The workspace was shadowed, set back from the road and the city’s lights, the thick wards around the building just visible at the edge of Arrow’s vision. There was a vehicle outs
ide the building, carefully parked just outside the perimeter wards, a tall figure standing beside it, breath visible in the chill air. Arrow’s stomach tightened at the unmistakable shimmer of Erith magic, the wards around the vehicle amber in contrast to the silver of her own magic. She was torn between fervently wishing it was not Kester, not wanting to see him ever again, and hoping it might be, wanting to know what had happened that morning.
The flavour of magic was wrong. Not Kester. Disappointment and relief chased through her. She slowed her approach, freeing her hands and gathering a coil of magic, wondering what business any Erith had with her now. There were a few Erith living in Lix, oddities among their race, preferring the human world with its technology over the slower paced, tradition-bound life among their own kind. But she did not think that the person waiting for her was one of the Erith in Lix. The vehicle’s wards bore the familiar trace of the Taellaneth’s chief mechanic, the work haphazard and sloppy. The mechanic and his crew loved the vehicles under their charge with the sort of single-minded focus that Neith vo Sena reserved for his horses, but were second rate magicians on their best days.
A tall warrior straightened from the shadows of the vehicle, one she knew. The knot inside loosened. Kallish nuin Falsen would not hurt her. It was a core-deep belief. And Kallish was, perhaps, something of a friend.
“Greetings, svegraen.” Her voice was a little rusty, but served.
“Greetings, mage. You are well?”
Arrow almost replied that she felt as though she had been broken and put back together wrong, a lump of hurt in her throat she had to swallow before she could answer. She side-stepped the question.
“Would you like to come in? I can make coffee.”
“Coffee would be welcome. And are there perhaps cookies?” The human word sounded odd from the warrior’s lips, drawing a tiny smile to Arrow’s stiff face.
“The shifkin are excellent hosts, svegraen. There is a selection.” One of the ‘kin was a master baker and Arrow was the frequent, happy, recipient of boxes of baked goods.
Taellaneth Complete Series Box Set Page 57
