But that was all I saw as my orange aura flared, spiraling away from me like a fiery python. Delayed by the resistance of the barrier, the effect came that I’d waited on. A burst of joy went through me when I realized that I hadn’t killed my friend after all. Such euphoria was short-lived as the basement hopped in place, becoming a double image. I felt faint, lightheaded. I watched my kitsune fire whirl over to Fenn, piercing the barrier as if it were nothing.
Yey, me!
The thrashing fire stream burrowed into Fenn’s fallen body, turning him incandescent, and then I lost track as the floor rushed up to smack me in the face.
Ouch!
Darkness closed in and I didn’t know if this was unconsciousness or Onyx—back together again—trying to protect me. Darkness swallowed the world, and my thoughts sank into its icy depths—for a moment. I surfaced with someone kneeling beside me. Onyx? My focus cleared. I pushed up a little and turned. No, it was Cassie kneeling beside me, her hand sliding on my back. A gentle heat spilled into me from her touch. Strength came, crowding out fatigue, filling my hollowness. I felt my aura blaze, rekindled, but not revived to a useful level for crossing the veil.
I’d need more than just a boost to my life force, after jump-starting … Fenn…!
I swung my head toward the spell circle. Fenn stood at its center, embracing the miko as I’d embraced him, with one arm, as I’d slipped the knife in. History had looped. The Miko’s obsidian knife had fallen, and now lay in two pieces. She wilted, face slack, surprised. It was the same look Fenn had given me when dying.
As a reminder, it hurt my heart to see it a second time, though I had no problem with the miko going down. She gave Shinto priestesses a bad name.
Her voice escaped as a coarse whisper, “No, this isn’t right. I’m supposed to win. I’m … supposed to… win…”
Her head turned, eyes closing, and her hands that had gripped him relaxed a final time. His bestial face hard as stone, a coyote mask, his eyes a topaz blaze, he lowered her to the floor, laying her out. He rocked back into a crouch, rising a little. In his hand, the knife dripped blood. Splatters fell on the red crystal chunk the miko had wielded against the demon, keeping him in line. Near the shattered knife, the red crystal pulsed brighter like a warming coal as the hovering demon tears rained over the miko’s body, studding her dead flesh. The ones I carried in my pocket ripped free, flying over to punish the corpse.
The glowing kanji on the ceiling and floor dimmed, dying as the miko had. I knew, in the ghost realm, the demon would be dancing on the miko’s corpse, laughing in joy at his recovered freedom. I hoped Wocky would be grateful enough to take the demon mark off me, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
Heavy darkness rushed in, the only light coming from the red hunk of crystal, the demon tears, and from the hall outside this fenced-in pit. Well, there was one more source of light; the yellow fire of Fenn’s eyes locked on me, burning with complex passions. I knew he was mad, that he felt betrayed. He had good reason. It occurred to me that he might also be dangerously out of control, his kachina side eclipsing his human nature.
The red crystal on the floor backlit him with a bloody light as he passed over it, stalking straight for me.
Cassie pulled me to my feet, and shoved me back, getting between us.
Onyx, back in human form, slid in front of Fenn, blocking his way.
Sanchez called out, “Later, Fenn. We’re in enemy territory, remember? Settle things later. There are still dozens of ninja upstairs. When they find out we’ve killed their boss…”
Fenn’s voice grated out, “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Later.” He stomped up the slope for the gate where Tukka waited.
Sheesh. It’s not like I hadn’t said I was sorry.
Cassie hurried after Sanchez. Onyx shadowed Fenn, but not too closely. Tukka shambled out of the cage as I brought up the rear. I was half way up the slope, alone in the cage, when the fence gate slammed shut. The metal poles bordering the door and the edge of the fence wrenched free, intertwining so a knot formed, locking me in.
I heard a slow, deep draw of breath behind me. The breath was released in a slow, reptilian hiss.
What the hell!
I turned, as the chalked writing on ceiling and floor returned to full glow. The flowing scrawls bent in new curves and angles, new spell replacing the old. The spectral green glyphs weren’t any language I’d ever seen—except—I touched my arm where the sleeve had rotted away to the demon’s touch. His branded name on my skin resembled the new writing.
I knew the screech of bending metal had brought the rest of the guys back to see what was happening. Cassie called through the fence, “Grace, are you all right? What’s going on?”
“I don’t think I want to know.” I had my back to the gate, watching the miko as cold dread licked down my spine. She picked herself up off the concrete, standing, eyes flame red, an icy laugh cackling from her throat. Her voice slashed like a katana, “You weren’t leaving without me were you, my dear?”
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I said.
“I am.” Another burst of laughter chilled the air.
“Then…”
She lurched toward me, her gait smoothing out after a couple steps. “It’s a little different moving a corpse around. Normally, demons are only able to hi-jack the living.”
It was Wocky, possessing the body. I looked at the demon tears studding her flesh and understood—blood magic. He was using the power of his own crystallized blood to anchor himself to the miko’s corpse, moving it like a marionette without strings. Coming right at me, his horrible, wide grimace passed for a smile; a dark promise from a frost-burned soul.
Tukka growled. The metal mesh of the fence screamed as he ripped it away.
TWENTY-NINE
STOP-THRUST: a counter thrust
attack into the opponent’s forward
movement or oncoming attack.
Turned by the screech of the fence, I saw Tukka leap inside, past the lip of the concrete bowl, only to be thrown back by an inner wall of air. Where he hit it, a patch of green phosphorescent shell became visible. It burned the same spectral green as the demon-writing on ceiling and floor. Patches of his inherited barrier flickered into view as Onyx and Fenn shoved in. They, too, were thrust back. As they picked themselves up off the floor, Sanchez moved in, tapping empty air with her knuckles like knocking on a door.
Cassie didn’t bother testing the demon’s spell-ward. She kept a steady eye on me and the demon wearing the miko’s body.
Fenn stood behind Sanchez, glaring in my direction. There was urgency and concern in his voice, “Grace, are you all right?”
I backed toward him, keeping watch on the demon. He made no move to pounce, or do anything to me at all. Probably trying to lull me into a false sense of security. The barrier stopped me inside, leaving me a few feet from my friends, a distance that might as well have been miles.
I spoke to Fenn over my shoulder, “I thought you were totally pissed at me.”
He said, “I am, but I’m still stupid enough to care.”
A deep cold place in my heart warmed a little. “I’m sorry I stabbed you.”
“Later,” he said.
Okay, later.
The demon shambled up the slope toward us, lacking the grace the miko had shown in her body. He stopped a few feet away. It was probably psychological, but I thought I faintly smelled rot as her red-star eyes hazed the air in font of her face. I shook away the fancy. It was too soon for decay.
Sanchez’s voice was tight and hard as she assessed the situation, “What’s that, a zombie?”
“Demon-possessed zombie,” my own voice came out low and soft.
Cassie’s hands were claws now, burning with the orange flame of her aura. Her face was a fox’s, tapering, fuzzy, with sharp teeth. And a couple of fox tails had fought free of her pants, twitching with nervous energy. If I’d grown a fox tail too, it would have done the same.
She bared teeth at th
e demon zombie. “Touch my baby girl, and you will wish you could die.”
“He would have hurt me by now, if that’s what he wanted.” I stared the demon in the eye. “What do you want, Wocky?
“All that is mine.”
My hand went to my arm, slapping across the demon brand on my skin. He probably meant me as well in that statement.
“She helped free you from the miko,” Sanchez said. “Why not show a little gratitude and let her go?”
“Relax,” the demon’s voice pierced like the creak of a rusty hinge, “I outgrew unnecessary killing long ago.”
The demon stopped beside me. Frowning, he tilted his head a little to the side. He studied Sanchez’s face. “Why not do the smart thing and get these others out of here?”
“I’ve a code. Leave no one behind,” Sanchez said.
The demon smiled at her. “Think of it as advancing to the rear. Surely you’ve better things to do?”
“No,” Cassie said, “we don’t.”
The demon shrugged. “Fine, but don’t think I’ll let you interfere.” He shot a sideways glance at me. “I have a hostage here that guarantees your inaction.”
Cassie caught my gaze and jerked her head sideways, moving away from the demon.
I followed her along the fence to where we could speak alone. The demon made no effort to stop me. This said a lot for his confidence in his power.
Cassie’s face melted back into her human one. Gripping the fence, her paws shifted into human hands. As she calmed down, her eyes lost their fierce glow. “You’re far enough away from him,” she said. “Cross over to the ghost realm and phase through this fence.”
“But the barrier—”
“I’ve seen you cross barriers before. When the witches of ISIS attacked Spirit Ranch, their spell-circle stopped me, but not you.”
“I don’t think it will work.”
“Try.”
“I’m too tired. You gave me a boost of aura or I’d be out of things already. I don’t have enough aura energy to cross over. Besides, the demon’s got something on me now.” I turned and showed her the rotted away sleeve and the exposed skin where Wocky had burned his name into my flesh.
The skin between her eyebrows creased. Cassie’s eyes narrowed. Her breath escaped in a hiss of rage. Her stare came back to my face. “That mark would stop any kitsune, but you’re also your father’s child. Give control to Taliesina. I think she can get you out on a shadow slide.”
“A shadow slide?”
“It’s how living shadows like Onyx seep across dimensional walls. Taliesina has the power, somewhere deep inside. She just has to find it.”
I closed my eyes, turning my attention inward. Taliesina’s eyes were yellow moons in the black reaches of my deepest mind. Her eyes receded, growing smaller, as if a yawning distance were claiming her. Her mental voice thinned, fading, I can’t. I can’t. Being unmade is horrible. You never know if you can come completely back, or if pieces are lost and forgotten forever.
Cassie’s hands clenched the fence mesh tightly. “Taliesina, you can do this. Do it for mommy. Please.”
I can’t. Daddy says no.
“Daddy says no,” I echoed.
Cassie rattled the fence. “Interfering bastard!”
Losing track of Taliesina, I opened my eyes. “What’s going on?”
“It’s your father, Khorde. Taliesina has ties to him as well as to me. Her loyalty is split because she loves us both. I don’t know how long they’ve been in touch, but she’s become vulnerable to his influence, and right now, for some reason, he’s curious about what the demon’s doing. Until that curiosity is assuaged, I’m afraid you’re stuck.”
I growled deep in my throat. “Interfering bastard!”
Cassie turned to face the elevator, her back against the fence. I heard a bell ding as the doors opened. At the same time, I grew aware of the miko’s voice, lifted in a rhythmic chant. I stared past Cassie and saw Shaun leading the missing ninja in an entranced parade. None of them seemed overly aware of their environment.
“Shaun!” I called his name while leaning against the barrier, making the shell glow around my touch.
He sleepwalked past me without the smallest sign he knew I was there. The lady ninjas passed, and bringing up the rear, I saw my missing friends; Aimi, Ryuuza, and Seiza. The girls were also enspelled, wide eyes lit with red fire, focused on something they alone could see in the bloody mists of a nightmare. They were the innocent, answering the pied piper’s song, and Wocky was the piper.
Fenn, Onyx, and Sanchez blocked the gate, stalling the sleepwalkers. Tukka filled the gap in the fence he’d made, determined to let no one pass. It was the only way they had to frustrate the demon’s plans—whatever they were.
His chanting cut off. I heard a snarl of annoyance. Using the miko’s voice, he called from the center of the bowl, clutching her obsidian knife. In his hand, the broken pieces had fused into one piece again. I felt a sudden cold dread icing my spine. I remembered the dismembered bodies at the farmhouse where Virgil had used me to test for ghosts. I could see another such atrocity here, in the making. I could see the demon plunging that evil knife into Shaun’s still beating heart. After the first chill of horror passed, incandescent rage ignited and I was mad enough to kill.
I stomped toward Wocky, my hands rolling into fists.
He saw me coming and a look of surprise hung on his face. I don’t think demons often have people seeking them out to kick their butts. I think a cat might look this way at a particularly brave mouse—before eating him.
Well, as Cassie had reminded me, I was more than kitsune. I was also my father’s child, and I had the shadow sword to prove it. I stopped a few feet away, concentrating, and a sword of shadow jutted from my fist, this one lacking any trace of my usual orange flame aura. The shadow sword had a weight that I’d not felt before. I shoved the tip out before me and Wocky took an involuntary step backwards.
“Grace,” he said. “Are you going to make me hurt you?”
“Think you can?”
His claw reached out as I eased closer. He batted at my sword’s flat edge. I expected his hand to ghost through the shadow weapon, or, like the ninja I’d killed in the temple, I thought he might frost over and shatter into a million pieces. Neither happened. Instead, a violet crackle of energy spun off the shadow blade, biting his hand, driving it back.
Wocky wiggled his fingers, studying them for damage. There seemed little. He made a fist. He looked back at the sword, then into my face. His face acquired that extra-wide grin of his. His red star eyes hazed the air between us with their glow. “Oh, my dear child, you don’t know how I love a challenge. But don’t expect me to go easy on you. You need to learn your place, prostrate at my feet, begging to service my every whim.”
His hands came together around the hilt of the obsidian knife. He held it braced before him like a much heavier blade. Red light seeped out of the knife, a crimson frost over the deep black. The light strengthened until the knife was a smoky smudge in the red blaze. The demon light extended, taking on the shape of a broadsword. His blade crossed with mine and a dribble of bloody sparks rained to the concrete underfoot. Where my sword touched his, violet jags tied themselves into knots in the air.
Grim pleasure clung to his iron-heavy laugh like layer of rust as it tortured the air. Pressing his weight in behind his sword, he began driving me back.
Remembering a little of what Shaun had taught me, I stepped forward and to the side, shifting hips and shoulders so my heart pointed at his elbows, my blade still blocking his. I pivoted my sword at the point of contact, rushing him from the side, snapping a kick at his exposed ribs.
He shifted to face me, our blades remaining locked. One of his hands came off his sword hilt. His free arm formed an angle, slapping my kick to bleed off some of its force. My whole leg was jarred, like kicking a stone wall.
I mouthed a few choice obscenities, limping back, dodging as his blade thinned, lengt
hened, and stabbed at my face.
His red-light blade resumed its previous shape, as I circled him, looking for an opening.
At one point, I could see past him to the fence. The line of the enthralled had lost its forward motion. They were oblivious statues. My glance registered Cassie, Fenn, Onyx, Tukka, and Sanchez—all staring my way with varying degrees of astonishment on their faces.
Don’t get distracted, I warned myself.
Our blades licked each other. More red sparks dribbled where violet jags danced, singeing the air. My foot hit something. It rolled. I looked down a second.
The red crystal chunk the miko had used against the demon. If only I knew how to make it work...
There was a wet splotch as if the demon’s back had swelled with puss and popped open. The concrete behind him received a bright red splatter of rain. Stabbing up from what had to be tattered flesh, the demon waved newly formed wings, the leathery membrane drying in the air between black ribs. I had assumed his entry into our world was done. Now I saw it as a continuing process.
Wocky laughed, snapping his wings wide open. Fluttering them madly, he blurred straight at me. His weapon crashed against mine sending shockwaves through my arms, driving me to my knees. He loomed like death incarnate, eyes hot as hell. From where our weapons grated, Red sparks rained on my head.
Her voice edged with despair, Cassie screamed, “Grace!”
THIRTY
CONTRAPOSTURA: adjusting your stance or guard so that your forte always defends the line between your body and the opponent’s tip.
“Liar!” I flung the word like a gypsy curse, and it echoed in the concrete bowl. “You said you’d outgrown unnecessary killing long ago.”
The pressure of the demon’s red-light sword relented against my weapon. His god-awful grin collapsed into a display of mock confusion. “Whom have I killed … without reason?”
Tears and Shadow (kitsune series) Page 22