There were crawlers peeking out from all over the place, plenty to choose from, so that was good. Plenty to block my exit—not so good. Now, to make a pick. My eyes lingered on a large one that walked upright on two feet. Even from this distance, I could feel the magic rolling off him.
Then I felt a tug in another direction. I turned behind me, realizing I should’ve been keeping an eye out in every direction. There was a furry little guy, not much bigger than a rabbit would be, and it was heading toward me at a full run. It was throwing off magic like I’d never felt, and it was growing stronger as it approached.
I took a step back toward the exit and then stopped. I was a Shadow Walker, the strongest one in decades. The weird bunny Shih Tzu was not going to run me out of the Shadowlands. How could I possibly explain that one? I’d have to pretend it was the monster still twenty feet away that chased me out.
I’ve got no idea, but it’s going to be something fantastic. Yep, that was what I’d said to Kane before I’d entered. Then furry bunny chased me out. No, that wasn’t going to be my story as I fell out of the exit. But damn, I wish this furball would slow down and stop hopping toward me.
It didn’t stop, not until it was a foot from me. Then it sat back on its hind legs and chirped. Chirping wasn’t bad, especially when I saw its little fangs hanging down and that it wasn’t trying to bite me.
Might as well ask it for my spell. What, though? If I asked for a spell to find the loose crawler, it didn’t mean I’d be able to do anything with it once I did. I could shoot for a spell to send the crawler back? That had some potential issues too. If it came out once, maybe it would come back. It still had everything it needed.
It started chirping again. It pointed its nose toward me, like an animal that wanted to know my scent.
I squatted down and held out my hand. Who knew, maybe it would give me a better spell if it liked my berry-scented body wash. It sniffed me for a good minute or so and then pulled its head back up and curled its lips back.
I yanked my hand away, but it didn’t move. It sat there, teeth on display. Other than two-inch fangs, nothing seemed hostile about the little crawler.
It chirped again and then resumed its teeth baring.
“I’m supposed to let you bite me?”
It went into an excited torrent of chirping, and I had a crazy feeling that it was arguing why that was good for me.
Why I knew that was beyond me, but it felt like more than just a hunch. Every time I hadn’t followed my gut feelings in the past, it had worked out for the worst. When I left with Asher in secret, I’d done it because I wholeheartedly felt that I owed him. My gut had told me to stay at the Underground. Now look at the mess.
It was time for a leap of faith. Only issue with that was that I didn’t run high on faith. I was more of a worst-case-scenario type. What if it thought it was helping and I ended up stuck in the Shadowlands forever? Just because I believed it, and it believed it, didn’t mean this thing actually knew what it was doing.
Time to dig deep and hope this little sucker didn’t bite too hard. How bad could it be? Its teeth weren’t that big.
I lifted my hand closer to it and it moved slowly, making little chirping sounds as if to ask me if I were sure. I nodded, keeping my eyes averted.
It moved quick, its teeth sinking into the fleshy part of my hand in between my thumb and pointer finger. The thing bit deep. Its razor-sharp teeth felt as if they were hitting bone.
I thought that was the worst of it until the burning started. It felt like engine fuel was being poured into the wound. I pulled my hand back slightly without conscious thought, and then wondered if I should jerk it back completely. Did I really trust this little crawler? Was it poisoning me?
Before I’d decided, the burning began to ebb and a tingling was building in its place, which wasn’t altogether bad. It felt like cool water trickling up my arm, and I could trace its path as it slowly made its way to my elbow, then my upper arm. Wait, was this heading toward my brain? My heart? I’d started to panic, wondering if I should rip it off me and risk it taking a chunk of flesh with it, when it pulled its teeth out.
But it didn’t stop the tingling inside.
The crawler hopped in the direction I needed to exit, and I instantly knew why as I looked around. The other crawlers were swarming, probably drawn by the magic in the air.
I didn’t waste time wondering if they were going to start fighting amongst themselves or come for me. I sprinted toward the exit.
I landed on my knees outside the Shadowlands, Kane still gripping my hand.
He looked me over. “You’re not on fire this time, so what happened? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m good,” I said, still feeling the strange trickling moving up my neck.
My hand still in his, he pulled me to my feet. “What happened?”
I wavered where I stood and felt his other hand go to my waist. My eyesight grew dark patches. “I’m not sure yet, but maybe I should sit down for a minute.”
I saw the car blurred in the distance but didn’t make it two steps toward it.
I’d woken from injuries before. It was a slow ache that dragged me back to reality. The pain clung like a pack of leeches and pulled me to the surface.
This was nothing like that. I woke feeling spectacular, as if I’d been injected with the serum of life while I’d slept.
I sat up suddenly, realizing I was on the office couch. Kane was sitting on the edge of the couch beside me. Butch, Leon, Flip, Jerry, and Zee hovered nearby. All of them were staring.
“What happened?” My eyes shifted back to Kane.
“I carried you in. They followed.” He scanned me, trying to diagnose a problem he couldn’t see.
Everyone was waiting to hear what happened, but it was hard to say when I didn’t know exactly. “I was in the Shadowlands, scoping out a good crawler to hit up for some heavy-duty magic, when this little furry guy…maybe girl, can’t really tell the sex on those things—”
Kane laid a hand on my hip. “Furry whatever. Keep going.”
What was with all the touching? I cleared my throat and continued instead of directing everyone’s attention to the intimate act. “It hopped on over to me and paused. I can’t say why, but I knew he meant well.” Better to prime the pump now before I told everybody I just let the thing bite me on a hunch.
“And?”
“He wanted to bite my hand, and I let him. My hand burned, then tingled, and then I passed out.” Okay, so maybe I didn’t prime the pump. Kane’s hand was resting on my hip in a very proprietary way. I was lucky I could speak right now.
The room went utterly still. Zee backed up a couple of steps while Butch leaned in. “Where’s the bite?”
I lifted my left hand and realized the teeth marks were nearly gone, nothing to show for the bite now but two pinprick spots that were barely visible. “It was there. It felt like it broke the skin, but maybe not?”
Butch took a couple of steps back. Leon looked like he wanted to, but seemed resigned. I knew exactly where Kane was because of the heat of his hand on my hip that I couldn’t stop focusing on.
“Why is everyone acting as if I’ve got rabies?”
Zee was the first to speak, but then it was only to make a grand exit. “This is over my pay grade.” Zee popped out.
Flip used the opening to get closer and grab my hand, examining it this way and that.
“How do you feel?” Kane asked. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
I stood and stretched my legs out as they all watched me lap the office. “Incredible?”
Butch and Jerry took a step back when I looped close to them. This time Leon joined them. Flip looked excited and Kane wasn’t showing much of anything.
“Could it be?” Flip asked, but it wasn’t clear who or what she was asking.
Butch scratched his head. “I never thought it was real.”
“What?” Was someone going to tell me what they were talking about?
Kane walked over to where I was nearly bouncing in my spot. “It’s called being shadow kissed.”
“There was no kissing involved.”
“Look down at your hand again.” He took my left hand in his and lifted it. “If it’s true, those two dots are going to form the top of what will eventually look like cupid’s-bow lip line.”
I didn’t see anything but two tiny pinpricks.
Flip jumped up at my hand, amazed by what I thought wasn’t even noticeable.
“Wow,” Flip said, the O lasting almost a minute. “This is fucking cool shit. My friend is shadow kissed.”
“Call us if you need us,” Leon said, before he, Butch, and Jerry exited the office with haste.
I didn’t realize Kane had given some sort of silent signal until Flip groaned and said, “I know. I’m going.”
Why did he want the room emptied? If this shadow kissed thing was good, why did we need privacy? I didn’t jump all over him until I heard the door shut. “I’m not going to become a crawler or something else weird?”
“You ask after you let the thing bite you?” He sat on his desk.
I spent some more of my endless energy moving about the room. “Is that a yes or a no?”
“No. You won’t. I wouldn’t let you become a crawler.”
I laughed, feeling almost happier than I should’ve. Kane thought he could stop the world from turning by the force of his sheer will, but even he had limitations, whether acknowledged or not.
“Other than great, do you feel anything else?”
I did a mental inventory, expecting to notice something God-awful upon closer inspection. Limbs, good. Interior, good. Heart beating and lungs inflating. “I feel good. Whatever this is, just tell me.” I did two more laps around the room before I planted myself in front of him, tapping my foot and gnawing on my lower lip.
He took in the tapping and fidgeting, his eyes lingering on my lips before he said, “Everything I’ve heard about being shadow kissed is folklore. I’ve never known anyone who’s been shadow kissed. I don’t know anyone who’s known someone who has been shadow kissed. But it might mean that the crawler passed some of its magic into you.”
“Why would it do that?” I circled the area until I lapped back in front of him, waiting for answers.
He didn’t say anything. Kane, my personal know-it-all, didn’t seem to know. I thought I’d dislike his know-it-all-ness, but I was missing the hell out of it right now.
“How could this be?” He had to have answers.
“I don’t know,” he said, but he looked relaxed.
Was he really relaxed? Or was he relaxed because he was Kane? Maybe he needed more info before he started shooting out answers. “I don’t feel any different. And it was a really small crawler. How much magic could that little thing have?” I ignored the fact that I’d felt how much it had. Maybe it had been a trick? What did I know?
“Maybe Asher will know?” If he’d even talk to me at this point.
“No. Don’t tell him. Not yet.”
My suspicions were so thick at this point, I didn’t argue with him. If Asher was hiding something…
“Whatever happens, we’ll work through it.” He reached out and took my hand, and I could see he meant it.
It might’ve been the sweetest gesture he’d ever made. I actually felt a little better until he said, “But maybe watch what you say for a few days until we know what’s what.”
Chapter 24
I walked into the Underground like I had the day before and the day before that. But unlike all those other days, the ones where I’d get a glance here, a quick dismissal there, and a handful of nasty stares, all eyes swung to me. The place was blaring Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects and yet I thought I could hear a pin drop. The reaction was a bit stunning, since this group hadn’t just seen and done it all, they were the aged-wine version of jaded. And somehow, I was the one who’d shocked them?
It didn’t take long to figure out that they knew something weird had happened. They’d seen me carried in yesterday and then the rumors must’ve started swirling. They’d take their look, see I was the same old Ollie, and go back to business as usual, as they always did. The events would unfold like normal, only in slow motion this time.
As I weaved in and out of the tables on the way to the booth, I found the path I normally took was widening. I glanced over and noticed the witches shifting their entire table further away from where I was headed.
Keeping my head up, I focused on where Butch, Leon, and Flip were sitting, while everyone else got their fill.
It took until I sat down and nodded hello to the table that it was clear the rest of the crowd was going to need more staring time. From the looks of it, they might need a few days. If they ever started talking today, it was surely going to be about me. It was the first time I realized how much the conversation added to the din in the room.
I eyed the suspects around the booth. Who’d told? And more importantly, what had they said? Had it been Flip? Nah. Besides this group, no one really spoke to her. Butch and Leon wouldn’t say a thing unless they were utterly convinced Kane wanted the information out. It wasn’t anyone here.
“Zee?” I said into the air.
She popped into the space faster than normal. She must’ve been hovering close by and watching the entertainment.
“Was it you?”
Zee put down a plate of eggs, having anticipated my order, as I realized who’d sunk the ship with a pair of bright red lips.
“Girl, you got it, flaunt it.” With a shift of her hips, she was gone again.
“Well?” Flip asked, staring intently. She hadn’t taken a bite since I’d sat down. Flip might’ve asked the question, but Butch and Leon didn’t seem to be lacking in interest either, although they ate as they stared.
“I’m the same as I was yesterday, minus the shot of energy.” I met each of their eyes so they could see for themselves.
Flip’s face fell and she shoveled yogurt in her mouth.
“Really? Nothing?” Butch asked, hoping for a different answer. “Yesterday it seemed a little freaky, but the idea was growing on me.”
“There’s still time. From what I’ve heard, it can take some time to kick in,” Leon offered, his hand reaching out to pat Flip’s.
I scooted some eggs around my plate. “What do you guys think I’m going to become? Aren’t I strange enough for you now?”
“Well, you were before you dangled this tasty carrot,” Flip said, and Leon and Butch nodded.
I hadn’t gotten through a few more bites before I heard a particularly annoying blonde at the witches’ table. “She’s even a bigger freak now, from what I’ve heard.”
Flip’s fingers began drumming on the table.
There was some more muffled talking I couldn’t make out, but Flip must’ve. Her fingers were near pounding now. Butch groaned and Leon shook his head.
“Flip, it’s fine,” I said.
“No, it’s not.”
“You guys were just saying how strange I was.”
“We’re allowed to make fun of you.”
“Flip, really, it’s all right.”
She seemed to be under control for the moment, and I shoveled my eggs in my mouth as quickly as I could. The sooner I got out of here, the better.
I should’ve kept my head down, staring at my plate. But I didn’t. If I hadn’t looked over at the witches’ table when I did, it still might’ve been okay.
But I did look.
That was when I saw Dana, a black-haired witch who had taken part in torturing me in the past, mouth, “Shadow scum.”
I’d never considered myself a violent person, but I imagined marching over there and punching her in the face. I didn’t, though, because I wasn’t violent. I looked down at my eggs instead, trying to ignore her.
When I heard a chair crashing to the ground and a feminine howl, I looked up, and someone had already gotten to Dana. I turned to my side, and Flip was still t
here, the whole table looking at me. No, the whole room was looking at me, as if I’d done it.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Butch said with a smile.
Flip nudged me in the arm. “Now that was some bad-ass shit you did. I thought you said you were the same?”
“What do you mean me? I didn’t touch her.”
“No, but you chanted some weird stuff right before it happened. She didn’t get punched by the air.”
I stood, my eggs only half finished. “I gotta get going.” I didn’t add “before I do something really bad and have no idea until afterward.”
What the hell was wrong with me now? I had to talk to Asher. He was the only one who might have answers.
Flip’s entertainment over, she slid out of the booth with a wave.
I was frozen. Did I ask Kane to get me in with Asher, or did I see what kind of juice I was carrying and go straight there? Kane would try and stop me. Maybe he was right, but he didn’t have any answers, either.
I didn’t make it away from the booth before a commotion at the door upstaged my freak show.
Chapter 25
Suddenly the only thing anyone in the room cared about was who was at the door.
I turned, curious who could draw the attention away from myself, to see Rudy at the door. Why would the head of the leprechauns be here? Was Kane excluding me from a meeting? No, Jerry wouldn’t have stopped him from entering if he’d been expecting him.
The room’s attention shifted upward as Kane stepped out of his office. He waved a hand toward the door, and Rudy stepped around Jerry with the disdainful look of one who thought he was above the masses.
As soon as Rudy hit the stairs, I realized I had a meeting to worry about first.
“Where you going?” Butch asked as I took a step toward the stairs.
I’d thought it was pretty obvious, but I turned back to the booth. “I’m going to the meeting that’s about to happen.” Then I made a point of looking at the plates of food in front of them. I didn’t say the word slackers out loud.
“But…you weren’t invited,” Butch said softly.
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