Binding Ties

by Shannon K. Butcher

  Slowly, she began to stop fighting, partly because she was starved for oxygen, and partly because he was working hard to burn every speck of demonic stain from her thoughts.

  When she went totally limp, he let up enough pressure so she could breathe normally again. He didn’t dare let her go, though—not until he was sure that this wasn’t a trick.

  Joseph stayed firmly in her mind, giving her no chance to put up those giant mental barriers again. He was staking a claim on this territory, too. Putting down roots. Settling in for permanent residence.

  “I didn’t invite you,” she told him.

  “Too damn bad. You opened yourself up to that thing. You let it in. If even one shadow of that fucking demon is left in your head, I’m going to be here to kill it. Don’t even think about trying to lock me out again, or you’re going to have a headache for about a year. Understand?”

  She nodded. “I hear a helicopter coming.”

  Joseph’s hearing apparently wasn’t as good as hers. Something else that was a gift from her Slayer side, no doubt. “Are you calm now? Can I let you go?”

  “Yes, but the second you do, I’m cutting the tape away from that demon.”

  “I should just kill the fucker.”

  “You do that and we’ve lost our last chance at finding Eric and those kids.”

  He knew that. He hated it, but he knew it was true. “I can’t let you run off after a demon without me, and I can’t leave until I know Ronan is safe.”

  “Then you’d better hold on tight, because I can only fight the compulsion to fulfill my vow for so long.”

  Joseph watched the chopper land in a nearby clearing while he kept a tight hold on Lyka. It was no hardship having her in his arms, but he would have much rather had her there because she wanted to be than because she had to be.

  A couple of minutes later, Nicholas came through the brush and found them. His phone was in his hand, its screen lighting up the scars crisscrossing his face.

  “It’s nice that not everyone disables the trackers in their phones,” he said as he approached. “This is why I put them there. So I can find you when you need help.” He eyed Lyka. “Looks like you need help.”

  “I’m good,” said Joseph. “Ronan isn’t. I need you to take him to Tynan.”

  “I thought I’d be bringing you two back, too. That’s why I came with an empty chopper.”

  “We can’t go yet,” said Joseph. “We have a demon to follow.”

  Nicholas lifted his brows. “On foot?”

  “I doubt it has a car,” said Lyka.

  The demon grunted and gurgled behind its gag as it tried to chew through the fabric.

  “We really can’t lose it,” said Joseph. “You don’t happen to have a spare tracker on you, do you?”

  “Always. Hang tight.” He jogged off toward the helicopter and came back a few minutes later with a black backpack. “I assume you’re going to let this thing loose?”

  “Yes,” said Lyka as she tugged against Joseph’s hold, as if testing to see if he was still in control. “The sooner, the better.”

  Nicholas turned the demon onto its stomach and sliced through several layers of duct tape to reach its skin. He used a small tube of superglue to adhere an electronic gadget about the size of a dime to the center of the creature’s back. He then glued a scrap of leather over it. “So it won’t try to scrape the thing off on a tree trunk.”

  “Can I pick up the signal on my phone?” asked Joseph.

  “Use the app I installed last year. I’ll text you the code to this tracker.” He gave Lyka a meaningful glance. “You need a hand with anything else?”

  “Just Ronan.”

  “I can come back after I drop him off,” said Nicholas.

  “Itching to get away from the desk?”

  “Hell, yes.”

  “I’ll be home soon and free you.”

  “You’d better. I need to be out there looking for Torr.”

  “Do you have any leads?” asked Joseph.

  “Still looking. I don’t think the magic that zapped him was evil.”

  “Then he’ll turn up. Have a little faith.”

  Nicholas picked up Ronan’s limp body. “Call if you need me. I’ll be on standby.”

  “Will do.”

  Nicholas disappeared through the brush with Ronan in his arms.

  Lyka jerked against Joseph’s hold. Her tone was nearly frantic. “Need to go now. My skin is burning.”

  “Just hang on, honey. Once Nicholas is in the air, I’ll cut the demon free.”

  As soon as the chopper flew over the trees, Joseph dragged her away from the demon and loosened his hold. “Stay here.”

  “I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try.”

  He let go of her. She hugged herself, rubbing her hands over her arms like a junkie in need of a fix.

  Joseph made quick work of cutting the tape restraining the demon. He left a few loops of it—just enough to hold it in place for a few seconds while he went back to Lyka.

  He got a firm hold on her with one hand while gripping his sword in the other.

  The demon broke free and started toward them. It stopped cold as Joseph lifted his sword. “Run or die.”

  Apparently, the thing understood him, because it hesitated, then turned and sprinted through the brush so fast, it seemed to disappear.

  Lyka lunged after it, but Joseph held her back. “Not yet. Let it think it’s free, or it will never return to its queen.”

  “I need to go. Need to follow it.”

  That damn vow was riding her hard, making it impossible for her to think about anything else. He could feel her frantic sense of panic flowing through their link.

  He took her by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Look at me. We’re going after it. It can’t get away. We can track it, remember?”

  She either didn’t hear him or didn’t believe him, because that sense of panic grew until she was shaking with it.

  He couldn’t wait any longer. It was too much to ask of her to suffer like this.

  Before he could let go, he felt a huge draw on his power. As he watched, her eyes changed, becoming those narrow, feline pupils. Bone and tissue surged beneath his hands as her body began to shift. It took less than three seconds for the change to be complete.

  She fell to the ground in the form of a fully grown tiger, wearing the tattered remains of his shirt.

  “Lyka.” Her name was a plea. “Don’t do this.”

  Of course she said nothing. Instead, she gave him one last golden stare, then turned and leapt into the forest on the heels of the demon.

  * * *

  Lyka had never felt so free in her life. Her body was strong, moving easily over the rough ground. Her senses were running hot, picking up even the slightest traces of the demon where it had passed.

  She had no idea how long she ran—time meant nothing in this form. All she knew was she felt like she could keep going for days like this.

  The demon slowed as it dipped down into a ravine. She held back, staying hidden in the thick undergrowth of the surrounding forest. There were hundreds of scents here—both demon and Slayer.

  Eric had come this way. So had several young.

  She was close.

  Moving silently on four paws, Lyka eased down toward the origin of all those scents. Whatever magic had blocked them before was missing here, giving their presence away.

  The demon stood next to a narrow opening in the rock, waiting for her. It looked at her with its dead black eyes and pointed.

  Apparently, the connection she’d made with the thing had lasted. It knew she’d vowed to help it claim its queen, and, even from this distance, she could feel that it wanted the woman more than it wanted to drink Lyka’s blood and eat her flesh.

  She went where it
pointed, slipping into the low mouth of a cave.

  It was brighter inside than it should have been. She’d been in plenty of caves in her life, and there was no darkness that was quite so deep and impenetrable as that of the belly of a cave.

  Still, the light flowing down the tunnel here told her that this was no ordinary cave.

  The demon eased up beside her, keeping a safe distance. It knew not to trust her any more than she trusted it. Still, they had reached some odd kind of agreement that stemmed from her promise to help it get what it wanted.

  It went to all fours, moving easily along the low tunnel. She followed it, pausing only when she saw what lay ahead.

  There were more demons like it milling about—dozens of them. Some of them were piled in sleep, while others were tearing raw meat from cow bones.

  At least it was cow and not people.

  As they neared the gathering, the demons began noticing her presence one at a time. There was a moment of confusion—she doubted any of them had ever seen a tiger before—but it passed as they realized that whatever she was, she was still made of meat.

  They closed in.

  The demon escorting her hissed at the others, warning them away. It made a strange clicking sound for a few seconds, then a series of short hums. After that, the horde began going back about its business.

  Miraculously, she’d been labeled as not food. And it stuck. Hopefully, it would stick long enough for her to gather her kin and get out of here, because there was no way she was going to be able to fight this many demons and survive.

  The system of caverns and tunnels wound around in a wide spiral. As they neared the center, Lyka could smell Slayer young. They were hungry, afraid. She could smell their tears.

  A rough growl rumbled in her chest.

  The demon stopped and looked at her, baring its teeth in warning.

  She held perfectly still, waiting for the thing to make up its mind whether to attack or keep moving. Finally, it turned around, giving her a view of the leather Nicholas had glued to its back as it moved deeper into the spiral.

  The ceiling of the cave shot up high in this area. The tunnels curved so tightly that she could see only a few yards before her vision was obscured by more rock wall.

  The demon pushed open a pair of solid wooden doors, stirring the air.

  Eric’s scent hit her with such force, she felt her eyes tear up. He was here. Alive. But something was off. He smelled wrong. Broken.

  The demon pointed, indicating she should go through the doors. She did, and stepped into a lavishly decorated room fit for any queen. There were thick, ornate rugs; elaborately carved furniture; and a line of wooden wardrobes, one of which stood open to reveal several velvet gowns.

  Lying in the center of a giant bed, bound hand and foot, was her brother Eric. He was naked, covered in ragged bite marks like nothing she’d ever seen. Infection burned red around his wounds, especially at his groin. It looked like animals had been gnawing on his genitals.

  His body was lean, almost gaunt—proof that he’d burned a lot of his reserves trying to heal himself. Sickness hovered about him, and a heavy layer of that wrongness she’d sensed earlier.

  She raced to his side, shifting back into her human form as she did. The second she reached the bed, his eyes popped open.

  He blinked several times as if to clear his vision.

  She went to work loosening the ropes binding his wrists over his head. “I’m getting you out of here. Just hang on.”

  “Lyka?” His tone was heavy with confusion, so she took a couple of seconds to ease his mind.

  “It’s okay now, Eric,” she said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  The smell of his fear was so strong, it gagged her, but his gaze wasn’t fixed on her. He was looking past her to something behind her.

  “She’s here.” His voice cracked with terror. “Run.”

  Chapter 38

  Lyka turned in time to watch the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen let go of her velvet skirts and lift her hand.

  “He’s mine.”

  A crackling electrical charge filled the room an instant before power exploded out of the woman.

  Lyka instinctively pulled on Joseph’s power to shield her while she covered her brother’s body with her own.

  The force of the blast hit her back and knocked the breath out of her. It shoved the heavy bed several feet across the stone floor, where it hit the opposite wall hard enough to shatter the wooden frame. Heat spilled out around her shield, burning precious oxygen from the air.

  When the pressure of the magical attack faded, Lyka could feel Joseph’s panic vibrating through their connection. He was desperate to reach her, exhausted from running, but refused to slow as he rushed to her side.

  He wasn’t going to make it to her in time. He was too far away. She could tell by the way his thoughts were a distant echo, rather than a powerful mix of emotion and images.

  She was on her own.

  Lyka spun around to face her attacker while she shifted into her tiger form. The change was instantaneous, easy. Shock rattled around in her, until she realized that she’d managed the feat only because she’d drawn power from Joseph.

  She prepared to launch herself at the woman, claws extended, teeth bared. She was going to rip this woman’s throat out for what she did to Eric.

  Her body coiled to attack, but she couldn’t pounce—not at this woman. She’d made a promise to a demon to deliver her, and she was bound by the magic of that vow.

  Lyka couldn’t kill the bitch. Her own words had tied her hands.

  Eric, however, had no such constraints.

  She slashed at his ropes, freeing him in a few quick strikes. Her fur stood up on end, warning her of an incoming attack.

  In a heartbeat, she resumed her human form.

  Once again Lyka used her body and a surge of magic to shield them from the blast. As heat and light washed over them, they were pushed back until they were smashed flat against the stone wall of the cavern.

  “No one takes from me what is mine,” screamed the woman.

  “Treszka, stop!” yelled Eric. “You don’t even know if you’re pregnant yet. You might still need me.”

  “I have from you everything I need now.”

  Confusion cast a fog over their words for a second before Lyka realized what they meant. He hadn’t been bound to the bed, naked and chewed on, because he’d been serving as food. This Treszka woman had been raping him.

  Lyka’s stomach turned at the implications. She tried not to think too hard about what her brother had been through—at least not now. Now all that mattered was getting the hell out of here.

  Treszka’s blast of magical force faded again, leaving behind the smell of ozone. It was hard to breathe. Lyka’s body felt weakened from the lack of oxygen.

  Eric was trembling, reeking of stunned regret, infection and weakness. They couldn’t stay in here much longer. They needed an exit strategy.

  Lyka pulled power from Joseph to strengthen her body and used every bit of muscle she had to flip the monstrous bed onto its side. It leaned against the wall, forming a tight shelter for her and her brother.

  The scent of demons grew stronger, and the sound of their footsteps got louder as they approached the chamber.

  “Any other way out?” she whispered to Eric.

  “Not that I saw.”

  “Where are the young?”

  “Separated in two groups. You should have passed one on your way in.”

  The smell of the young had been present on her path here, but it had been faint. Hours had passed since they’d gone that way. Maybe days. “I didn’t.”

  “Then I don’t know where they are now. I’ll keep her busy here. You go find them and get the hell out. I’ll just slow you down.”

  “We leave
together.”

  If they left at all. As of now, Lyka couldn’t think of any way past the woman and her sledgehammer magic.

  I’m coming, Joseph whispered in her thoughts, faint and distant.

  It’s too dangerous. Stay away.

  Not going to happen, kitten. Hang on.

  She had no choice. She couldn’t even fight back against this woman.

  But perhaps she could restrain her. Once Treszka was bound, Lyka could deliver her to the demon she’d made a promise to. What it did with her after that was none of Lyka’s concern.

  She had no clue what she was doing, but she had to try something. She pulled a steady stream of Joseph’s power into her, letting it build inside her. In less than a couple of seconds, the pressure of the magic became too much to bear. She had to let it out. Now.

  “Stay here,” she ordered Eric, and then she grabbed a sheet and darted out from behind the bed so she could see what she was doing.

  Power bulged inside her body, pressing against bones and organs. With every passing fraction of a second, more energy collected in her, demanding to be set free.

  Lyka tossed the sheet toward Treszka, imbuing it with a living kind of magic. The sheet flew through the air and wrapped around the woman’s legs like a boa constrictor.

  She toppled onto her hands and knees. Her black hair fell over her face, and she brushed it back, giving Lyka a murderous look. As those inky locks pulled away from her forehead, they took with it a flap of skin that covered a gaping maw filled with wicked teeth and a single, weeping, bulbous eye.

  Suddenly, the woman wasn’t so beautiful. She was all demon.

  Treszka ripped the sheet from her legs as it if had been tissue paper. The hem of her velvet skirt was shredded. Her black eye burned with hatred. “What are you?”

  “Fifty percent Slayer, fifty percent Theronai, one hundred percent Gonna Kick Your Ass.”

  “Guards!” Treszka screamed, and lifted both hands. Every loose object in the room became a projectile weapon, flying right toward Lyka’s head.

  Chapter 39

  Joseph wasn’t going to make it in time to save Lyka’s life.