Other fu dogs were pressing forward again, adding silent roars to the mix.
Am-Heh was down on one knee, holding his head. Blood dripped out from under his palms, trickling down his neck. Then he stood, hands falling to his side. The shape of his head had changed, becoming heavier, stony. And his ears were gone, no longer a liability. He waded into the sonic blast, his back bowing, his spine erupting in places, growing spikes. Horny protrusions soon jutted his shoulders, elbows, and knees. His tail grew barbed as he swished it in anticipation. At this rate, we were going to need an air strike. Maybe a few nukes...
Tukka was falling back, drawing his people along.
Undaunted, Fenn held his place as Am-Heh loomed ever closer.
Then Cassie was there, popping out of the ghost realm, snagging Fenn by the collar. They vanished, leaving me the closest snackage to Am-Heh on the battlefield.
I looked at Tukka. He’d collapsed and was being dragged off. Everyone with sense was high-tailing it. Cassie had probably assumed I’d exit through the ghost realm too. She didn’t know that my aura was bone dry and I had no such escape. I didn’t even have the sword Virgil had bought me. Not that I’d ever learned how to use it.
And now, Am-Heh was twenty feet away, just two of his steps.
“I don’t want to die,” I told Taliesina.
Her golden eyes melted the shadows in my head. Her usually sleepy voice turned hard and sharp. Then don’t, Sis. Leave this to me.
“Uh, sure.”
In the past, either Taliesina had control, or I did. This felt different; I slid deep into her thoughts and they blended with mine. I felt a core of magic—a dancing, icy shimmer of power that exalted and filled, rolling outward to flush my skin with a soft white glow. My gown melted in a rage of wind that swirled around me. A pool of bottomless fire opened under my feet, but its radiance lifted me into the air. Ribbons of light spun around me, solidifying against my skin, fusing into an orange and green kimono with a golden sash. And spilling down either side of my face, my hair lengthened to my waist.
Epic! I’d become a magical girl from an anime.
The pool of light closed, letting darkness rush in. But cold, orange fire played under my feet, tongues lapping up at my ankles, keeping me hovering in the air. I thought I was out of aura.
The true depths of our power has long been hidden, Taliesina explained. And we are our Father’s child, so we will win.
In her mind, I saw a shadow shape, a living darkness. Onyx eyes, cold and curious peered through her, at me. Cassie was mistaken; Father had always known about Taliesina, and through her, about me—if only second hand. I felt him near as a thought, ready to pour into this reality with the destructive force of a hurricane.
No, Taliesina told him. This is my dog to tame. She stretched forth her ... our ... hands, joining them around the hilt of an unseen weapon.
Am-Heh came in a rush, claws stabbed. His mouth gaped wide, ready to swallow me whole. His bestial snarl pounded me like the boom of a low flying jet. The sound swallowed and muted the scream that ripped out of me, born of fury, not fright. Merged with Taliesina, fear dwindled to a cold shadow we shrugged away. I sent us sliding sideways, still balanced on the fluttering flames that bathed my feet. And in my hands, an obsidian sword appeared; long, curved, tappering, and one-edged. It had weight—no mere shadow. I sensed life in the sword that was my Father’s gift.
I held it firmly and left the cutting to Taliesina. Under her control, a black fire hazed the blade. Like Am-Heh, it drank the dark moon’s power.
His claws slashed through the place I’d just been hovering. Taliesina turned the hilt. The sword trailed in our wake, it’s edge lovingly stroking Am-Heh’s arm. As I dropped, the blade slashed across his ribs. The hell-beast fell to the ground. His good arm caught him, bracing him through a turn. His wounded arm stiffened with frosted. It gouged the ground and crumbled into shards with a firecracker string of pops.
He stared at his missing limb, then turned blazing eyes my way. He opened his mouth and a torrent of flames gushed out.
We hit the ground and rebounded. Controlling the legs, I had us rebounding at once down the burning funnel of Am-Heh’s breath; Kitsune’s play in fire, we do not fear it. But Am-Heh’s flame was as unnatural as mine. It clung like napalm, spreading quickly, dissolving great swaths from my kimono. Burned through, my obi belt uncoiled, becoming ash in the blazing air. I smelled cooking meat—me! Taliesina used my throat to scream, a piercing spike in my brain that echoed, as I crossed us over into the ghost realm.
I managed to scrape off the fire, but the agony remained, eating into my lucidity. My bones were melting within me, my muscles flowing like molten wax. I knew the feeling from when the Mothmen were rewriting my DNA, and I’d started turning fox ... with jaws that bite and claws that catch... The trapped beast in me was attempting to scratch her way out—no, that wasn’t it. I looked at my forearms which were blackened and cracking, sloughing off damaged skin. In flux, my body was accelerating the healing. Soon, fresh, healthy tissue replaced the old, and the pain became a ghost in my head I’d alays remember. I now had a new comparison of how bad things could get. Lucky me.
I freed my left hand from the sword and thrust my palm ahead of me. Foxfire burst from my fingertips, sliding down my gray toned body, thickening my aura, formed a protective umbrella ahead of us. Taliesina had grown silent, cutting herself off from me, dead weight in my spirit.
Stay with me, I begged, the rides almost over!
I gritted my teeth and crossed us back. Am-Heh began a deep breath, preparing to hit us again with the winds of hell. But we exploded in his face, my umbrella breaking apart as I returned my free hand to the hilt of the sword.
Reemerging, Taliesina's blind, animal fear flashed into incandescent fury, increasing our strength. Both our hearts drove the blade, with little finesse, crunching through his skull, slicing several vertebrae. My feet hit him, transferring energy. Kicking off helped me dislodge the sword. I dropped at Am-Heh’s feet.
We stood looking up at the monster. He’d staggered back a step but kept his feet. No blood fell, red ice inside his gapping injury. With an ache of anticipation, we watched him slowly thud his knees into the ground, fingers twitching, limbs nerveless and loose. Taliesina took over control of our legs, dancing us farther away. Am-Heh’s impact shot waves up his body as it started to loose solidity, misting at the edges as if he’d never been anything but a nightmare miming flesh. The remnant of his head burst into icy chunks that hailed, rattling off the ground, bouncing every which way.
Still, I had to wonder ... Is he going to stay down this time?
A ragged mess, I tried pulling enough of my kimono together to preserve modesty, and succeeded, barely, as Taliesina lifting my head to the moon. A reddish lunar surface was emerging from the earth’s shadow. The eclipse was ending.
Hopefully, she said. All we can do now is wait and see.
EPILOGUE
A week later, I was back at HPI with Drew and Jill in the cafeteria. The kids at the other tables stared at me. They knew less than a tenth of what I’d gone through, but it was enough to make me a respected, and sometimes feared, legend around here. The only one better at dominating with a glance was Fenn. He’d been avoiding me lately. Maybe he was mad because he’d eaten Am-Heh’s liver and instead of gaining god-like powers, they’d pumped his stomach at the hospital due to food poisoning. I still owed him a favor for watching over my girlfriends. Maybe he was having a hard time figuring out what to ask for.
Drew looked at me, “So, whatever happened to the surviving witches?”
“Don’t know. Prison, I guess. For all I care, they can ship them off to the same alien autopsy room that got what’s left of Am-Heh.” I forked a piece of pineapple into my mouth. I was eating a fruit salad, trying not to look at Jill’s very rare steak.
She looked at me. “Aren’t you ever going to eat meat again?”
“Not after what I’ve seen.” I grimaced, feelin
g a twinge between my shoulder blades.
Jill sighed. “Still in pain?”
“Yeah.”
“Take your pain pills,”Jill said.
There were bandages under my clothes. I just had surgery to remove the wings, and apparently the moth DNA had been responsible for my glamorization. When the wings went, so did the boobs and other enhancements, my kitsune biology reasserting itself. “Life really sucks,” I said.
I took a small whiff, a scent from behind me. Fenn.
“Is this seat taken?” he indicated the empty seat next to me.
I shrugged. “Help yourself.”
“I usually do.” He set down an empty tray and pulled out the seat.
I silently munched my salad.
Fenn stared at Jill and Drew.
They locked glances with each other and stood, picking up their trays. Drew said, “See you later, Grace. We’ve got to go. Homework or something.”
Traitors.
My throat had suddenly gone dry. I needed a drink. As I set my fork on top of my napkin, Fenn placed a hand over mine. A hush swept the room. All eyes were watching.
I shot him a questioning glance.
“I’m here to collect,” Fenn said.
“Collect what?”
“A date. You and me, away from this place.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Papparazi have been sniffing around for my internet persona. That stupid robbery is going to haunt me forever.”
“Then I’ll settle for a lip-lock, tongues included.”
Mentally, I flashed to the coccoon where I’d had Ryan’s slick, prehensile tongue forced down my throat. I shook away the vision, hating its clarity and freshness. “You know I’m not ready to give up on Shaun yet?”
“Let the best man win,” he said. “By which I mean me.”
I liked his confidence, and being fought over was every girl’s dream. “Okay, pick me up at six.”
He grinned like a ferret that had just ham-strung a wolf and ripped it’s throat out. “See you later.”
Life was still getting complicated.
Golden eyes opened in my mind. Hmmmm. Not bad. You should give him a chance.
“Why,” I asked.
Shaun’s dreamy cool and all that, but he’s taken himself off the menu so to speak. Fenn on the other hand ... well, it doesn’t seem to bother him you’ve gone back to being flat as a...
“Watch it,” I warned.
My gaze caught Fenn’s empty tray. A metaphor for my life—emptiness, waiting to be filled. I just had to figure out what I wanted, and if the wanting was good for me. While I waited in the eye of the storm, I’d settle for dinner and a movie ... with popcorn. And I’d insist on seeing a chick flick, a really bad one—we’d see just tough Fenn really was. It would distract me. All week long, I’ve tried to avoid thinking of Daddy Darkest.
How long do I have before he shows up again?
Taliesina said nothing.
I sighed. Nevermind. I don’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss.
Shadow Dancer (Kitsune series) Page 30