Megan giggled. Sidney’s heart swelled. She hadn’t had a moment like this for as long as she could remember. Still, she was a little stressed about how things with the Black Slate would work out. She thought of an older classic rock song she had heard earlier in the day. “Love Will Find a Way.” She gave Megan a hug. She felt like she had everything she needed.
And then the tiny bell over the door to the restaurant rang.
A moment later, the conversation inside the diner fell silent.
Sid lifted her head.
Smoke turned and looked over his shoulder.
A woman stood in the aisle. She was stunning from head to toe. Her blonde hair was shoulder length and exquisite. A tight celery-green dress accentuated every curve. Jewels adorned her neck and fingers. Bright and tasteful. With a smoldering look, the confident woman approached, dropping every man’s jaw.
Megan stood up on her seat and said, “Mommy! Mommy!” She jumped over Sid’s lap and rushed into the woman’s arms.
Sidney’s heart dropped. She whispered in astonishment, “Allison?”
Allison hugged her daughter tight and kissed the little girl on the cheek. “Oh, I missed you, baby. I’m taking you home.”
“Yay! I missed you too, Mommy!”
Sid’s throat tightened. This wasn’t the same Allison she’d grown up with. No, this woman was different. She had an air. A renewed confidence. A swagger very much like what she’d encountered with everyone from the Drake. Monsters and all.
Smoke and Mirrors: Book 5
CHAPTER 1
Sidney covered her nose with one hand and held her Glock in the other. A small beam of light shot out from a gadget mounted on top of the gun’s barrel. Her feet sloshed through the muck inside the dark sewage tunnel. “There’s got to be a better way to make a living.”
“You wouldn’t have it any other way,” Smoke said. He walked step-for-step behind her, a shadowy protector with a pump-action shotgun in his hands. “Plus, it’s good for the ole ticker. Keeps you from getting fat too.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said, easing around the next bend in the tunnel.
“Just an expression.”
“From where?”
“Somewhere.”
Four months had passed since they took down Deanne Drukker at Mallows Bay. Allison and Megan had vanished. Sid hadn’t slept well since. Now she was stuck in a sewer pipe hunting down another criminal on the Black Slate. She felt a tug on her arm and turned.
Smoke had a finger to his lips and was pointing at the light on her gun.
She turned the beam off, leaving only the two of them in the blackness. Reaching out her hand, she found his chest. His heart pounded slow and steady under her palm. Smoke was never in a rush. Never panicked. Her breathing eased.
With his soft breath on her ear, he whispered, “Listen.”
The past few months with Smoke had been nothing short of odd. All business for the most part. A little pleasure in between. A strange platonic romance that neither one of them seemed to have figured out yet.
Footfalls splashed and echoed through the waters somewhere nearby.
Smoke took her hand and guided her deeper into the network of tunnels.
She followed.
This wasn’t their first rodeo. Just in the last few months there had been several others, but not from the Black Slate. Instead, they’d hauled in local criminals. Thugs. Bail jumpers.
Smoke called it ‘easy money’.
She’d learned a few more things about Smoke that she’d never had time to notice before. He had instincts. He did things. Extraordinary things that she hadn’t figured out yet, but she liked it.
Trying to ignore the stench, she followed along, one grime-soaked step after the other. She slipped and caught herself by grabbing one of Smoke’s jean loops.
“This isn’t the place for that.”
“Hah, hah,” she said, still keeping her voice low. “But I’d say our chances here are as likely as anywhere else.”
Smoke didn’t respond to her quip. Instead, his strong frame came to a stop.
Ahead, something soft scurried in the ankle-deep waters, sending chills down her spine. Swallowing hard, she aimed her gun barrel toward the sound.
“Easy,” Smoke whispered.
The new mark on the Black Slate was just as trying as all the others. His name was Swift Venison. It was one of the stupidest names she’d ever heard. The man behind the name, a pale-faced rat of a man, was the definition of sinister. Six FBI agents had died at his hands over a month ago. That didn’t count all of the innocents who had perished in his bloody wake, either.
It hadn’t taken long for Sid and Smoke to catch up with the man in a frumpy diner. However, he had scurried away like a rat as soon as Smoke put a gun to his head. The man was fast, impossibly quick, and a street race on foot had led them down into these sewers.
Now Sid, twitching her nose, walked through the foul muck below the city. And there was more than stink all over it.
The scufflings ahead got a little louder then came to a sudden stop. The wretched tunnel had been deadly quiet, but now tiny voices made little squeaks. Stomach starting to knot, Sid said in a low voice, “I really need to shed a light on this.”
“Go ahead.”
She pressed the button on the small laser light mounted on her pistol. The bright beam cut through the darkness, illuminating the tunnel. There, at ground level, her eyes locked on dozens of others. She gasped.
Rats bigger than cats blocked the tunnel. Their eyes were small ruby beads. The sharp teeth in their mouths dripped with hunger.
Tugging on Smoke’s pants, she started to back away.
Smoke remained.
“Let’s go!” she urged.
“Not yet.”
“Let me guess, you speak giant rat?”
“No, but he probably does.” Smoke lifted her gun light higher.
A man stood just behind the horde of rats. His eyes were a deep red and his slender face was covered in grey fur. His supine figure bulged inside his clothes, in which several stitches were ripped. He removed the tie that hung from his neck and slung it aside. Showing a mouthful of rat-like teeth, he hissed more than spoke, but what he said was clear. “Eat, brothers and sisters. Feast on their bones!”
CHAPTER 2
Smoke said something. The word was barely audible, but the meaning was clear. “Run!”
Sid took off at a full sprint.
Smoke was on her heels, with the sea of rabid rats nipping after him.
To make matters worse, the angry tide of rats squealed so much it hurt her ears. She hated rats. She hadn’t even liked to feed squirrels when she was a girl. But rats, why? “Where am I going?” she yelled as she closed in on a junction of tunnels. She turned left and slipped to a complete stop.
More of the monster rats were coming right at her.
She unloaded a round of shots.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
“Ulp!”
Smoke jerked her up to her feet and took her by the hand. “This way.” He crossed the junction in the other direction. The way was clear, nothing but smelly sock-soaking waters.
“We need to get aboveground now, John!”
“I’m working on it.”
They’d already been inside the tunnels for more than an hour, and Sid didn’t have any idea where they were. She wasn’t so sure Smoke did either, but they didn’t have any other choice but running at the moment. She glanced back. The rats couldn’t be seen, but they were heard. A loud, continuous squeal from Hell itself. She cracked off a few more rounds that ricocheted off the walls and ping-ponged down the tunnel.
Blam! Ping! Pong! Pow! Blam! Ping! Pong! Pow!
“Save your ammo,” Smoke said.
“I do what I want with my ammo, and you do what you want with yours.”
They stopped in the middle of another intersection where the tunnels crisscrossed. The sound of more rats was coming from all directions. The
path they were traveling was cut off. The turn to the right was another swell of rats.
“To the left it is,” Smoke said, forging ahead.
“Brilliant choice,” she said, running after him.
Hoofing it as fast as she could, Sid fought the urge to cover her ears. It sounded like the entire maze of tunnels was stuffed full of rats—hungry flesh-eating vermin.
Don’t look back! Don’t look back! Don’t look back!
She did.
A lone rat—bigger than a cat—had surged ahead of the pack and started to nip at her heels.
She screamed. She fired.
Blam!
The little monster fell over dead and was instantly trampled and devoured by its brethren.
Sid’s legs churned faster.
Lord, please don’t let me die like this!
She turned and let the light on her gun find Smoke’s back.
His broad shoulders blocked the view, leaving her chasing his back. He stopped on a dime.
She slammed right into him.
“What are you—ack!”
Smoke slung her around his back and formed a wall between her and the rats.
Ear-shattering shotgun blasts fired from his barrel.
Ka-blam! Ka-blam!
With her back to a sealed-off door and her ears ringing like bells, Sid took aim.
The entire horde of rats had come to a stop. They were all bunched up, one row on top of the other. A knee-deep wall of fur.
A squeaky sharp voice spoke.
The sea of rats parted from side to side.
There stood Swift Venison. Part human. Part rat. Another abomination of nature gone mad. “I see you both have finally found the end of the tunnel. Good. Now I just need to decide if I should let my friends devour you or not.”
Sid started to squeeze the trigger.
Swift held up a finger. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You see, if I die, then there is nothing to keep these rats from devouring you.” He looked back behind him. “And notice, they stretch back as far as the eye can see. Besides, why waste a bullet? It can’t hurt me.” He made a command-like squeal.
The rats pressed closer. They were little more than a foot from Smoke’s boots.
“Be wise now and set your weapons down.”
Eyeing the rats, Sid set her gun down.
Smoke tossed his on top of the rats, drawing some squeaks.
“Very smart of you.” Swift sniffed the air with his tiny nose. “Oh, how I love the smell of fear. It’s in your eyes. In your sweat. All the way down to the hair on your toes.” He flicked the shotgun up into his hands with his toe. “Now, turn around and open that door.”
Sid and Smoke didn’t move.
“Aw, I’m not going to shoot you in the back,” he said in a calm and trustworthy voice. “It’s just not my style. And I could easily tear the both of you to pieces. Oh, but how I hate to get my nails bloody. I just had them manicured.”
“Really? Which veterinarian did you use?” Smoke asked. “I’ve been looking for a good one. You see, I have these little Pomeranians—”
“Shut up!” Swift pushed back the long rat fur on his head and took a breath. “Anyway, typically I let the rats eat you, which I probably still will. But a funny thing happened. I recognized you. John Smoke and Sidney Shaw, bounty hunters.” He let out a shrieking laugh. “Heeeeeeee! The funny thing is, our kind has a bounty on your heads! It’s the oddest thing. I only recently became aware of the facts. You see, so many of our special kind don’t frequent my abode. I can only assume it’s my gruesome exterior and preferred décor.” He bounced the shotgun on his shoulder. “You took out the wolfman, Night Bird, the Minotaur, and those vile Ratson brothers. It seems you’ve really gotten the Drake’s attention. Now there are bounties on your heads, big ones. More power. More territory, and it has all fallen right into my—eh?”
Sid and Smoke turned their backs to him and put their hands on top of their heads.
“Just shoot us in the back,” she said. “Anything is better than letting you bore us to death.”
“Wh-What?”
“Come on, just get it over with,” Smoke added, shaking his head. “A talking rat. Say, are there any mutant turtles down here?”
Sid burst out in laughter. “Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Swift let out an angry howl. “Grrrrrrrrr! You dare! What are you fools babbling about?”
“Come to think of it, why are you pursuing us?” Sid asked. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be pursuing Shredder?”
The next warning from Swift froze the marrow in her bones.
“I’ll shred you. I’ll shred you both.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something come at her with blinding speed.
Smoke’s head rocked forward.
A split second later so did hers. Pain filled her eyes, and everything in the world turned black.
CHAPTER 3
With painful effort, Sid lifted her chin from her chest and blinked her aching eyes. Skull throbbing, she found Smoke’s eyes.
He sat adjacent to her with his hands behind his back. He was struggling. “Enjoy your nap?” he asked.
“I’ve had better.” Grimacing, she fought against the bonds that had her arms pinned behind her back as well. She started digging into them with her nails. Her nostrils flared. The cell was a dingy spot with mold, mud, and who knew what else on the floor. Surrounded by concrete block, the only way out was through an iron grate with a solid but haphazard door. “Aw, great.”
“Don’t worry,” Smoke said, “I’m sure the ninja turtles are around here somewhere.”
“Ha ha.” A desperate nagging started in Sid’s stomach. “We really need to get out of here.”
“I had a plan,” he said, grunting with effort. “But you set ole Fuzzy-face off with that Shredder comment. He must have hated the show. But he was fast. I’m talking AV fast, and—”
“Hold up a second. Are you blaming me for us getting captured?”
“I was merely distracting him. Like I said, I had a plan.” He winked at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure something else out.”
She stretched out and kicked his boot. “You’ll figure something out? How about I figure something out?”
Smoke sat still. “Okay, then you figure something out.”
She leaned her head against the wall. “Sometimes I don’t know if we make a good team or a bad team.”
“Lighten up, Sid. I’m just stoking your fire.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s coming.”
“I don’t hear—”
“I hear voices!” It was Swift. The creepy shifter stood in front of the bars, holding a giant rat in the crook of his arm. It had a long tail and pink-painted toenails. “So it seems the little smart-alecky people are awake from a pain-filled and nightmarish slumber. Good.” He stroked the rat’s fur and added, “My friends are getting hungry, and I won’t be keeping them at bay much longer.”
“Just out of curiosity,” Sid said, “why didn’t you just kill us?”
“An excellent question, thought out. Most people just plead for their lives. But I have to say, the two of you are special.” Swift stepped back, and another foreboding figure stepped in. It was a deader. An iron-thewed male with a long expressionless face. He wore bellbottom jeans and a black Styx concert T-shirt like a cursed body guard. “This is Jax. He’s been with me a long time. You’ll have to forgive the smell. I don’t think he’s had a shower since 1983.” Swift rubbed the fiber on Jax’s sleeve. “But look at the quality of these clothes. Not a hole in them. Sometimes I wonder if it’s the bloodstains that keep them together.”
Sid swallowed as Jax opened up the door.
The formidable figure lumbered in, bent over, and picked her up into its arms.
She coughed. “Morning Glory, he’s foul! Put me down.”
Jax walked out of the cell.
The door slammed shut behind them with a loud clang.<
br />
Sid flinched. Her heart raced. She craned her neck around, only to catch a glimpse of Swift blocking the cell door.
“What’s the matter, dearie? Didn’t I give you time to say a proper goodbye to your boyfriend?” Swift flashed his teeth and chomped them really quickly as he lowered his hand and snapped his fingers. “Oh rats.”
The deader hauled Sid into another room, where oversized rats scurried over the floor.
Beady red rat-eyes bore into her.
This is bad. Really bad.
The room was nothing but slime-coated stone with some old tables and chairs. It looked like a guard shack from the fifties. There were chains and shackles hanging from metal loops in the walls. Skeletons hung all over the death chamber.
Gaping, she finally realized Jax had set her down, unbound her hands, and shackled her wrists to the chains.
He strung her up with her arms raised over her head and moved away.
Swift mounted a digital video camera on a tripod and pointed the lens toward her.
“What are you doing with that?” she said.
“Proof of life. Proof of death.” Swift clasped his hands together. “My kind just loves this stuff. It’s for our own version of YouTube. And just look at how happy my little brothers and sisters are.” He waved his hand over the rat-covered floor. “Eating the homeless and those drug addicts isn’t quite as filling for them as the likes of you.” He squeaked to the rat in his arm, “Reeee!”, and it licked him on the nose. He set the rat down on the table behind him, patted its head, and turned to Sid. “Now, try to look pretty as long as you can.”
Sid started to tremble.
I can’t believe this is happening! No! No! No!
“That’s perfect!” Swift said. He stuck his eye to the camera. “Yes, they’ll eat that up.” He moved toward Sid and faced the camera with flare. “Let loose the rats of chaos and cry havoc! Oh wait, the record light isn’t blinking. Damn!” He marched back to the camera and pressed a button until the red light stayed on. “Now let the show begin.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Sid pleaded. She stomped her feet. “Wait! Don’t I get a last request or something?”
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 55