“Do not let a stone-bearing Sentient touch you with his hands,” she had said as she left. “Lock … away.”
I didn’t know what that last part meant, and I didn’t know if these Sentients carried stones, but I didn’t want to find out right now.
As the male grabbed at me, I ducked between the pair, hitting my knees. I flung my arms out, striking them behind their knees and caused them both to drop to the floor.
The female shouted and the male cursed. They each rolled away with surprising speed.
As they moved out of the way, three Zombies lunged for me.
I somersaulted backward and was on my feet with the corner behind me. Trapped if I didn’t get out of here.
Over their shoulders I saw Colin using his sword and his strength to battle Zombies.
More Zombies were behind the three in front of me and that didn’t count the Sentients who were now to the sides.
I drew both Dragon-claw daggers and charged the three Zombies. The one on my left went down as my dagger made a clean slice across his neck and beheaded him.
The middle Zombie stumbled back when I rammed my right dagger into her chest where her heart should be—but when I yanked back, blood didn’t cover the dagger.
As I kicked his jaw at just the right angle, the third Zombie’s neck snapped, its head twisted at a freakish angle.
The headless Zombie was down, but the one I’d impaled came right back at me again. I heard a crack and a snap and my stomach clenched as the third Zombie’s eyes popped open and I saw it had wrenched its broken neck back into place.
And the two Sentients were coming for me, too.
Adrenaline pumped through me and blood rushed in my ears. I had to get out of the corner. I was almost pinned with no place to move to.
Then I saw a stone. A Sentient was holding it. The female.
My heart thudded. I didn’t know what it meant for a Sentient to have a stone, but I sure remembered the Magi’s warning.
Two remaining Zombies and the two Sentients closed in on me. The female holding the stone said something that sounded like it was spoken in French, but it wasn’t French. The other three backed off a little as she came toward me.
I dove to the side, close to the wall, propelling myself beyond the four of them. I slid along the floor, skidding on my shoulder with enough force that I slammed into two more Zombies beyond them.
The Zombies I hit toppled onto their backsides. I leapt to my feet and grabbed my oval double-sided buckler from my weapons belt and flung it at the two Zombies that had attacked me. It beheaded them both. The bodies collapsed to the café floor as the buckler returned to my hand.
More words in the French-sounding language and the Sentients were charging me again. The two Zombies that I’d knocked down when I slid across the floor were now on their feet.
Back to four against one.
I went after the Sentients.
Avoiding the female’s hand, I balanced on one leg while I kicked her head then her arm. She cried out as she fell and the stone spun across the room. It hit the far wall with a clunk.
The male Sentient went after the stone.
The two Zombies came after me.
In the background I heard Colin’s shouts and the sounds of other Zombies, their cries, moans, and groans.
I turned away from the male and faced the Zombies. Like the others, these two were in various stages of decomposition. The Sentients, on the other hand, looked whole and healthy.
I drew my second Dragon-claw dagger and beheaded one Zombie while lopping off the arm of the other that was reaching for me.
The male Sentient rushed toward me with the stone. The female was right behind him.
With one stroke I finished off the armless Zombie, ridding it of its head.
I faced the Sentients. They were almost on me.
A roar shook the café and my gaze cut to the side just enough to see that a Dragon the size of a horse now stood where Colin had been.
Fire blasted from its snout at the remaining Zombies in the room. Moans and cries filled the area as they were roasted.
The Sentients ran through the front entrance.
I bolted after them.
Zombie bodies littered the café. I leapt over them as I went after the Sentients. They were faster than I’d have given them credit for.
I caught up to the male and lunged for his legs. I wrapped my arms around them and brought him down.
His face hit the concrete. The stone flew out of his hand and into the street. A Toyota zipped over it, barely missing hitting the stone with its tires.
From out of nowhere, a woman I hadn’t seen before cried out and dove for the stone—right into the path of an oncoming truck.
Brakes squealed as the truck slammed into the woman.
She lay still in front of its bumper as it came to a hard stop.
The male and female Sentients fled. For one second I debated about whether to go after them or grabbing the stone. I went for the stone.
Sirens in the distance. Sounds of people talking. Sights of some looking at the apparently dead woman. Others looking at me.
We were going to have to call the PTF and a Soothsayer in a hurry.
I wrapped myself in an air glamour and vanished from human sight.
More gasps and cries echoed in the street.
“Did you see that?” came one voice. “A purple woman?” said another. “She just disappeared,” and “I got her on camera with my cell phone.”
Great.
The woman continued to lie still in front of the truck as the driver came out and started patting her shoulder and asking her what her name was.
Was she alive? My senses told me she wasn’t a Sentient, she was human. Yet she’d gone for the stone.
Right now the stone was mine. Just in time I remembered not to touch it with my fingers.
I’d tucked the second handkerchief into the weapons belt in the pouch next to the first stone. I pulled it out, tossed it over the stone lying in the street. I grabbed it up and ducked out of the way before I was almost hit by a car that came to a screeching halt behind the truck that hit the woman.
When I glanced at her body, my stomach churned. Something was very wrong about the woman and however she was involved with the Zombies and Sentients.
“She’s alive,” I heard the truck driver say. “Breathing but unconscious.”
Relief that she hadn’t died made my blood move again. I went to where she was lying face down on the asphalt. I looked over the shoulder of the man who’d hit her and two other men who’d gathered close. I couldn’t see the woman’s face, but noticed that she had short dark hair and a crescent-shaped wound behind her left ear.
Still in glamour, I turned and rushed into the café. The floor was covered in Zombie bodies. The Witches were nowhere in sight.
Colin stood in the center of the café, the horse-sized Dragon gone. Gold sparkles still glittered around him. He must have shifted back moments ago. His jacket was lying on the ground, shredded, and his T-shirt was torn.
He gripped his sword in one hand. In the other hand he held a cell phone and was talking on it. The scaled serpent tattoo winding up his arm seemed to glimmer.
Sirens in the distance. Obviously able to see through my glamour, Colin gave me a quick nod as he was explaining the situation and requesting cleanup.
After he snapped his cell shut and stuffed it in his pocket he looked at me. “Well, the chill is gone. Ready for that beer?”
“In the worst way.” A sigh rushed out of me in a whoosh. “I could use a six-pack right now.”
Colin lightly kicked one of the headless bodies. “I’m willing to bet that these will be just like the others. No ID, nothing telling us what or who these things are.”
“Or were.” I put my hands on my hips as I around us. “Are the Witches okay?”
“I think so.” Colin pointed toward the doorway behind the counter. “I saw them run through there as soon as the Zombies
rushed in, and someone called the PTF before I did.”
I recognized the sirens as they drew near. Not NYPD but PTF. “They must have called the agency while we were fighting off the bad guys.”
“Good girls.” Colin gave a nod of approval. “That will save some headache.”
We found the Witches and calmed them down as we consulted with the PTF.
The second stone weighed heavy at my hip as I went outside. I waved to Karen Tanner, who’d been called in as Soothsayer for this incident. The Soothsayers had been kept busy lately with all of the Zombie attacks.
I walked to the ambulance, where the PTF emergency techs were bent over a gurney. The unconscious woman was strapped down on the gurney, and Sara, a Healer, stood to the side of the ambulance.
“Hey, Sara,” I said to the Healer as I went to the woman who’d been hit by the truck.
Sara shoved her gloved hands into her pockets. The Healer was shivering and her teeth chattered as she said, “Hi there, Nyx.”
I wanted to take a look at the human now that she was on her back and I could see her features. One side of her face was scraped from skidding on the asphalt.
The woman looked Hispanic, about thirty, and a couple of inches shorter than me. She had long lashes that were black crescents beneath her closed eyes. She had a naturally olive complexion yet her face was pale.
That strong sense that she was Other came to me along with the sense that she was human. Not like me, half human and half Other, but something was different. Impossible, of course. But what was she?
“Is the woman going to be all right?” I asked Sara as the techs put the gurney into the ambulance.
“She has multiple lacerations and a few broken bones.” Sara watched the ambulance doors shut behind the woman. “She’s in a coma.”
“A coma?” I rubbed my arms. “Do you think she’ll come out of it soon?”
Sara shook her head. “I saw into her mind and it is still. Very still.”
My skin prickled even as I rubbed my arms. “Is she human?”
The Healer frowned, looking perplexed. A little confused. “She’s human, but I sensed something different about her when I reached into her mind. Yet she’s definitely human.”
I frowned, too, but I didn’t mention I’d had the same feeling.
After talking with the Healer, I spoke to one of the PTF agents who said they’d found a wallet on her. According to her New York driver’s license, her name was Candace Moreno. Her wallet held pictures and she had a laminated badge with the name of a stock brokerage company on it.
Stock brokerage and not really human. Very weird.
When Colin and I had talked through things until we had exhausted every angle we could think of, we were ready to get out of there.
The only thing I hadn’t told him about was the stone, and this wasn’t the place to do it.
TWENTY-TWO
The Sorcerer Amory’s heart pounded and his chest ached as he stood on the balcony and looked down at Tieve and Una. They had just returned from the Earth Otherworld and now knelt at his feet, both with their heads bowed.
The lavender-streaked skies crackled, lightning passing from one cloud to another as rage shook him.
“What do you mean, Bryna might be dead?” Amory’s voice shook with both fury and fear for his niece who was also one of his trusted advisors. “Why was she with you if you say she had found her Host?”
Una looked up and licked her dry lips. Amory could smell the beginnings of decay from the sickness on her breath.
“Yes, Bryna found her Host and had taken the body,” Una said. “She was prepared to go to you with her Host’s stone but she asked Tieve to hold it for her.”
“Why would she do something so idiotic?” Amory looked at Tieve. “Bryna is not stupid. As soon as she exchanged essences with her Host she should have returned in the new body with her stone.”
“The Host body wasn’t taking well to her essence, Lord Amory.” Tieve’s voice trembled. “She felt ill and weakened, so she asked me to carry her Host’s stone until she could get to the portal.”
“Why did you not bring her straight to the portal?” A slow burn began to warm the Sorcerer’s chest and he clenched his fists at his sides. He would have taken care of her. He could have cured the sickness his people sometimes felt when they took a new Host’s body.
Una said, “The Shells of those left behind—what Earth Otherworlders call Zombies—were hunting. The Shells found two paranorms. They seemed drawn to them. As if they held a vacated stone.”
Amory frowned. “That is not possible,” he said and dismissed that thought.
Tieve looked at Una. “The paranorms appeared strong, magical. We were certain they were some of the Trackers whom we have studied and just what we were looking for. Una and I stopped with the Shells to capture the paranorms and trade our essences.”
“What happened?” The growl in the Sorcerer’s words made both Una and Tieve flinch.
Lightning flared across the sky. Thunder rumbled and the balcony shook. Wind blasted them, pressing his tunic and breeches against his body, sending cool air over his bald head.
“The Trackers were much stronger than we anticipated,” Tieve said. “They fought off thirteen Shells as well as both of us.”
Una nodded. “One was a Dragon.”
Shock filtered through the heat of Amory’s anger. “A Dragon? In the Earth Otherworld?” And the possibility of a stone. Had he been wrong to dismiss that idea?
“We saw him change,” Tieve said. “And the other Tracker must be Drow. She looks much like the Dark Elves we fought and the one we captured in Otherworld. This one had blue hair and purple skin.”
“A Dragon and Drow in the Earth Otherworld,” Amory said aloud, unable to believe his fortune. “That would explain both paranorms’ strengths.”
The Sorcerer felt more than heard Una’s and Tieve’s sighs of relief because he hadn’t killed them for the news they had returned with. Nor had he eliminated them for leaving his niece behind.
No, he wasn’t going to kill Una and Tieve. He had better plans for both.
For a long moment he stared off the balcony and at the rich lands and let Una and Tieve shiver with the knowledge that he still might hurt them. Cloud to cloud lightning continued to crackle overhead and hair rose on his arms.
What lay before him and around him had served as their homeland for over twenty years and he would be sorry to leave it. The world they had taken control of when they fled Kerra had been a good home.
With the exception that Doran had eventually rejected the current bodies they were in even as the Kerrans’ home world had rejected their original bodies.
Amory turned back to the two, who had their heads bowed. “Stand.”
Una and Tieve hurried to their feet. They cowed when he put a hand on each of their heads, but they did not move.
The Sorcerer delved into their memories and the image of Bryna finding a new Host filled his mind. It was with some sadness that he watched her Shell join the others. A Shell was a being neither alive nor dead that would help his people find new Hosts while ridding them of those who were unwanted.
Candace Moreno was the name of the Host Bryna had taken. She had been what humans called a “CEO” of a “brokerage house.” Amory wasn’t clear on what that position entailed, but his research team and advisors believed it to be a good thing for him to have control of in their takeover of the Earth Otherworld.
Amory moved on from that memory and images of the Drow female and the male Dragon rushed through his mind. He brought the memories to the forefront, making them strong in the minds of Una and Tieve.
They would now be able to remember every single detail about the Trackers. Details they hadn’t consciously noticed would now be firmly set within them.
When he removed his hands from their heads they slowly looked up at him. Both had expressions of surprise on their features.
“Where they live,” Una said. “They were
talking about it when we entered the café.”
“Yes … the female will be easiest to watch for.” Tieve glanced at Una as he spoke. He looked at Amory again. “The Dragon will be far more difficult to find because he did not give as accurate of an address as the Drow did.”
“Locate the female and she will likely lead you to the male,” Amory said, then continued, “You will find my niece and recover Bryna. You will recover her stone and if there is a vacated stone, you will recover that as well. You will take the Drow female and the Dragon male as your Hosts.”
He had seen more in their minds than the memories Una and Tieve had of the pair and it bothered him enough that the snap and sizzle of the lightning grew louder and thunder shook the valley.
“This Nyx and Colin will be trouble for us if they are not taken.” Amory considered the situation. “However, they will be great assets once they are taken. They can aid in our plan to infiltrate the Paranorm Council.” He nodded to himself. “Yes. That is what we will do.”
He scowled at Una and Tieve. “Get the Drow and the Dragon and get Bryna. If you do not, you will suffer for what you have done and have not done.”
The pair bowed and fled.
Amory took a deep breath and drew his magic within himself. He let his body relax, tension leaving him.
The skies cleared until they were a lavender-streaked whitewashed blue and nothing more than a soft breeze stirred the leaves of the trees that shaded part of the balcony.
He turned and strode to the manor, entering the large hall and walking toward the Inner Circle chamber where his advisors should have convened by now. The polished marble floor was smooth and cool beneath his bare feet.
The Sorcerer entered the room and in one glance he saw that eleven of his advisors were there, standing around the large circular table. Only Bryna was missing. That thought alone made his belly boil as though hot oil had been poured into it.
Several of his advisors had already taken over Host forms that controlled important positions in the Earth Otherworld. Amory had arranged this meeting so that he might tell them he was prepared for the next step.
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