Razor's Edge, Book 3, The Horde Wars

by Sherri L. King

  “Let go, goddamn it!” she screamed, beating it about the head with her free arm and trying desperately to regain her feet.

  The fire that slept inside of her, dormant but ever watchful, leapt forth and sent a shield of flame around her arm. But the Daemon held, instinctively knowing that in doing so it was safer than in letting her go. It dug its teeth into her flesh, crunching her bone with its powerful jaws even as its claws sank into her shoulder and hand to better keep its grip on her.

  “Motherfucker!” The pain wrenched a scream from her and she struggled to throw the beast off, uncaring that her arm was further mangled through her own protests. The Foils in her captured arm would only have anchored the beast tighter to her, so she sent her other hand—now tipped with glowing white-blue blades—deep into the belly of the beast. She wanted the bastard off of her and she wanted it off now.

  And then it was gone. But not through her own machinations.

  With a loud sighing ‘poof’ the Daemon turned to dust before her eyes. Not hide nor hair of it was left behind, only fine black silt that smelt of long decayed death.

  A black-cloaked man, features obscured by a deep and billowing cowl, bent down over her. “Grimm. Thank God—”

  But it wasn’t Grimm.

  Cady’s eyes widened and her heart nearly burst from her chest. “Who are you?” She began to crawl backward, away from the stranger in a motion of self-defense, but the man followed and bent down at her side.

  His hand gently touched the side of her face and was both cold and warm at the same time. Cady shivered and searched for some clue as to who he was, but his face remained firmly in the shadow. “Cady,” the man’s smooth voice murmured softly, causing chills to run up and down her spine. His hand then moved down to her injured arm.

  In an instinctive reaction, Cady flinched, though she needn’t have done so. The man’s touch was gentle, and the moment he laid his hand upon her wound, the pain lessened considerably. She breathed a sigh at the sudden, unexpected relief.

  “Cady!” Obsidian’s voice had the dark man’s head shooting up, and he stepped away from her alertly. “Cady!”

  The man gave her a long last look, then disappeared, leaving her gasping in his wake.

  Obsidian fell down on his knees beside her. “Oh baby, you’re hurt. Just lie still, I’ll take care of you. We must get this healed. Are you okay? Say something.” He gripped her hard against his heart, which thundered deafeningly against her ear.

  Cady felt the shock of blood loss and pain set in heavily upon her. As if in a dream she pointed with her good arm to where the dark man had stood but mere seconds before. “Did you see him? Did you see? Who was that?”

  “Who, darling? There’s no one there.” Obsidian tried his best to soothe her as she began to grow limp in his arms. “Take hold of me, everyone. We’re leaving now.”

  Cady felt the din of Travel surround her as Sid took her home to safety. “Who was that? Who…he saved me,” she breathed before oblivion took her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As Cady was being healed by her husband after being hypnotized into a deep slumber by the mere sound of his voice, Emily and Edge made their way to the chamber where Tryton and The Traveler were interrogating their prisoner.

  It had been a long and harrowing night for their team, and they were lucky that only one of them had sustained any real injuries. Emily felt the strain of being the only human of the group. While she had managed to keep up with the fighting, she hadn’t the stamina or the strength to take on as many Daemons as the others could so easily. Her body was bruised and sore, but Edge seemed no more affected than if he’d spent a pleasant hour at the gym.

  “You sure you want to see this?” Edge asked her once again. “It is probably going to be quite a bit messy in there.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” She squeezed his hand, which was firmly clasped around hers and had been more often than not since they’d returned. “I’m curious.”

  “Me too, if you want the truth of it,” he replied with a grin. “I have never really studied a Daemon up close without meaning to kill it as soon as possible. This should be educational if nothing else.”

  “There is that,” she laughed.

  He leaned reach down and caressed her bottom, then led her through the door of the interrogation room.

  Tryton and The Traveler were seated before the Daemon, who appeared to be standing behind an odd shield, invisible but for the sparks that flew bright and wild whenever the beast dared to touch it. For once, The Traveler did not wear his cowl, and his long black hair shone with a dark, blood red sheen in the dim light of the room.

  The effect The Traveler’s face had on Edge was surprising. He gasped beside her, and his hand clenched hers in a grip grown suddenly fierce. “Grimm,” he breathed.

  The Traveler turned and stared at them from eyes as black as pitch and scarier besides. Bright points of light swam in their depths like glowing stars, hypnotic and entrancing even in the disturbing blackness. “At last we all know,” was his dark response.

  “What… How…” Edge was at a loss for words.

  Tryton came forward. “Please. Sit, both of you. You are the last of your group to know Grimm’s identity, Edge. But no one outside your group knows. Please tell no one.”

  “But he died. He died a thousand years ago.”

  “Legends, Edge. That’s all they are. Grimm was wounded in a great battle at the Gates, yes, but he did not die. He merely faded into the shadows, to work in secrecy and in stealth. He explored the lands of the Horde for many long years, but has come back to us at last.”

  “Why would he do that?” Edge looked from Tryton to the man in question. Emily was confused at the turn of events and merely looked on in silence.

  Tryton turned and motioned towards the Daemon behind its invisible shield. “Because of that. Because of all of them. I knew, without finding and taking the source of their power—The Lord of the Horde himself—that these beasts would multiply and run rampant over the Earth.” He sighed, and a thousand lifetimes of regrets lay dead in that sound. “So I sent my most trusted ally into enemy territory to find Lord of the Horde.”

  “A duty which I failed and unforgivably so,” Grimm murmured.

  “Not unforgivably,” Tryton protested vehemently. “Never that. You have helped us in our fight far more than any other warrior, through your bravery and your cunning. You have failed at nothing.”

  “How can this be?” Edge interrupted. “You must be as old as Tryton, Traveler.”

  Grimm smiled. “Not so old in years. None would know the count of my years so well as he, though I admit I have long forgotten myself.” It was clear the two warriors had been friends through many long ages.

  “And the others know about you?”

  “Yes,” Grimm supplied, not one for many words even for explanation.

  “When he saved Cady and Steffy it was futile to hide his identity from their mates, else how would they have trusted him so?” Tryton supplied.

  “Then why let me know?” Edge asked, puzzled. “Why now?”

  “Because I wanted you to know,” Grimm answered, though his eyes rested firmly on Emily as he said them.

  “And now that you have captured a Daemon—a feat no other besides yourself has ever accomplished in our history—everyone will surely guess at the truth,” Tryton finished with a sigh.

  “I wanted you and Emily to know before the rest,” Grimm said emphatically. “You are my team, my family. You deserve to know firsthand who I am.”

  “I thank you, great warrior,” Edge said with great deference, offering him a bow to which Grimm responded with a wry twist to his lips.

  “What happened to your short words, Edge? I thought you distrusted all Travelers.”

  Edge chuckled. “Well, now that the pleasantries are over, I’m sure I’ll get back to sniping at you whenever I can.”

  Tryton called their attention to the Daemon. “Now what to do about this devil, I won
der? It will not speak to us, except in its Horde tongue. Nor will it weaken.”

  The door opened. Cinder and Steffy joined them, neither of whom seemed surprised to find Grimm unmasked in their midst.

  “Have you learned anything yet, Elder?” Steffy asked.

  Tryton turned to Emily thoughtfully. “What say you, human? Do you think you can inspire it to speak?”

  Frowning, she rose, leaving Edge and moving to stand before the Daemon. “I don’t know,” she finally answered to Tryton. “Before, they always spoke to me when we were fighting. Trying to surprise me into dropping my guard, I guess.”

  “Perhaps battle will draw it out,” Cinder supplied.

  Emily thought on it. “Why don’t we let it out of this shield thing and find out?”

  Tryton seemed reluctant but nodded to The Traveler. “Do it, Grimm. We’ll see how this plays out.”

  The Daemon seemed to sense when the shield fell, with an innate cunning that had no doubt stood it well in the way of surviving. With a high-toned cry it leapt and fell upon Emily, no doubt seeking to Travel her out of the Shikar prison. Tryton’s promises had been true. The wards of the Shikar world held and neither the Daemon nor Emily disappeared.

  Emily rolled with the beast, seeking the dominant position, to hold it down and force it to speak. As expected the monster croaked in its hellish voice, unintelligible at first but with growing clarity.

  “Emily, come,” it said. “Emily, come.”

  Emily looked up at the stunned faces of those that surrounded her. Everyone had moved to flank her the minute the Daemon had struck, but now they appeared frozen in their tracks. “This is all I’ve heard them say,” Emily told Tryton breathlessly.

  “Em-em. Em-em come pway wif me. Come,” the Daemon gurgled in an unmistakably childish voice.

  Emily screamed and launched herself off of the beast, shaking. “What did you say?” Immediately she reversed and grabbed the monster by the throat, straddling it once more. “What the fuck did you say?” she screamed down into its horrible face.

  “Em-em, pway wif me. Em-em save me. Emily, save me!” It ended in a high scream.

  Yelling in rage and fear and pain Emily beat down wildly into the monster’s visage, crushing cartilage and bone with her blows. Edge came behind her and tried to pull her off, but she was too far gone in her emotion. “Damn you, motherfucker! Where did you hear that name?” She screamed and beat at the thing until it writhed in agony beneath her. Tryton moved in to help Edge, and it took the combined strength of the two Shikars simply to pull her off.

  “What the Horde is wrong with you, Emily?” Edge shook her as she tried in vain to crawl back over the Daemon.

  Emily was sobbing, crying and shouting hysterically. “Oh God. It called me Em-em. No one’s called me Em-em but my little sister. It used her voice, it used her voice—”she cried.

  “I didn’t know you had a sister,” Tryton said.

  Grimm, who had immediately grabbed the wounded Daemon, went still, looking at her intently. He seemed most interested in her response, that much was clear in his stance, and even through her tears she could feel the burn of his black eyes upon her.

  “I don’t. She’s dead,” Emily sobbed. “She’s been dead for three years. My poor Raine, oh my baby sister. How did this fucking monster know about her nickname for me? How could it know that?”

  Steffy laid a cool hand on her shoulder. “Raine? You’re Raine’s Em-em?”

  Emily looked up with dazed eyes. “What?”

  “Your sister. She was Raine Lansing?”

  “Yes.” Raine hiccupped.

  “Tall blonde, with pale blue eyes, and a crooked nose? Went to the Boston College of Music a few years ago?”

  Emily grabbed her. “Yes! You knew her?”

  Steffy gasped. “She was my best friend. My only friend,” she cried. “She talked about you all the time!”

  Everyone in the room was stunned by the news. In a night of surprising revelations, this one was the most unexpected.

  “You knew her? You knew Raine before she died?”

  Steffy nodded slowly. “I was there, where she had the accident. I wasn’t allowed to see much, though. One of the paramedics was so affected by what she saw down in that ditch,” Steffy shuddered, “I don’t think the woman was ever the same again. There was blood from the road down into the trees, so I guess it was pretty bad nearer the car.”

  “I didn’t see you.” Emily swallowed hard. “At the funeral, I mean. Her body was lost somewhere in the snow. What was left of it after the initial impact was thrown clear of the car, but we had a service for her. I would have remembered you had I seen you.”

  Steffy’s face shadowed with remembered pain. “I couldn’t go. It was too hard to let go of Raine that way. Too final.”

  Emily nodded and turned to look at the Daemon, clutched tightly in Grimm’s strong hands. “But how did that thing know to call me Em-em? How could it use her voice, from when she was just a little thing?”

  Tryton and Edge pulled her to her feet. Edge held her steady against him, heart pounding in her ear.

  “I don’t know,” Tryton murmured. “But I intend to find out.”

  Edge ushered Emily out of the room, giving the Daemon a wide berth in case she decided to launch herself at it again.

  “How the plot doth thicken,” murmured Grimm, as the door closed behind her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Three days passed and still the Shikars learned nothing from their prisoner. After Emily had left, it had made no further move to speak of anything useful no matter how many tricks they tried to persuade it. Beyond a few threats spoken in garbled Horde-speak, there had been no further developments.

  Cady’s arm healed rapidly, her Shikar body repairing itself like magic. The day after her injury she was good as new, if a little pensive and quieter than usual. Obsidian doted on her, of course, seeing to her every whim and desire. Their son, Armand, sensed something was amiss and loved on his mother with extra care. The family had taken to their rooms, but for their routine evening meetings with Tryton.

  Having taken care of their primary duty in securing a live Daemon, the team had taken the past few days off.

  Emily stayed quiet in her room, thoughts troubled. She’d heard, of course, when their captive Daemon had died on the second day. It had succumbed, apparently of starvation, cut off as it was from its necessary psychic link to its overlord and unable to feed on fresh energy. Emily had been glad.

  The beast had known about her sister. Somehow. It was too horrible to be borne.

  The days passed in quiet solitude. Steffy had wanted to visit, perhaps to reminisce about Raine, but Emily had refused to see her. Had refused to see anyone. Even Edge.

  Surprisingly, Edge had proven most understanding about her need for solitude. Though he came and knocked on her door every day, and collected her for their evening meetings, he never pressed the matter. Nor did he demand entry, as Emily had almost half suspected he might.

  On the third night of seclusion, Emily fell into a troubled sleep—her first since the night of the Daemon capture. Almost immediately, an odd occurrence for her after so long without rest, she dreamed.

  Out of the darkness, Raine walked towards her, looking tired but happy to see her. “Hey, Em. Missed you,” she said. Her voice was rough, as if long unused, but still the same youthful melody it had always been.

  Emily sobbed and embraced her sister. “I missed you too,” she whispered. She pulled back suddenly, remembering their last conversation, when they’d argued over Raine’s failing grades. Raine, of course, had laughed it all away, but Emily regretted that their last words together had been volatile ones. “I’m sorry for all those times we fought. I’m sorry for all those hurtful things I said the last time we spoke. I just wanted what was best for you, I wanted you to succeed at everything you chose.”

  Raine laughed, the husky sound echoing in the dream realm around them. “Silly Em-em. I know that. We ha
d a tempestuous relationship, you and I.” She reached up and rubbed the crook of her nose—a battle scar from when they’d been only children. Emily had sorely regretted breaking her sister’s nose. It had been an accident, but she’d never forgiven herself. “The best sisters always do.”

  Emily embraced her once more, fighting back a storm of tears.

  Finally, this time, it was Raine who pulled back. “Listen, sis. There’s something I need to tell you,” she looked around nervously, “before they know I’m gone.”

  “What?” Emily asked, thinking how real and detailed the dream was despite their nebulous, gray surroundings.

  “You can be one of them, Em. A Shikar. If you want to.”

  “What are you talking about?” Emily laughed, despite the intensity of her sister’s words and gaze.

  “Don’t laugh, listen…” Raine’s voice murmured on into the dream and Emily took heed as best she could.

  When she awoke in a tangle of sweat-drenched covers, Raine’s words still ringing in her ears, she at last came to the decision she knew, in her heart, was inevitable and right.

  She was a human. So much weaker and slower than any Shikar, unable to perform any of the magical feats that were so much an integral part of their nature. Cady and Steffy had both been human, and in the crossover from that state to Shikar they had taken on the qualities of a warrior caste as if born to them. Perhaps she could gain their strengths as well.

  And beyond any of these reasons that swam in and out of her mind was the one most important of all. Her growing love for Edge. No matter how she looked at it, no matter how she tried to rationalize her intentions without her heart clouding up the matter, it all came back to Edge.

  Emily knew he would be the love of her life. And selfishly, she wanted more than a human life span to revel in that miracle.

  If only he could find it in his heart to forgive what she must do.

  Emily only hoped she hadn’t completely lost her mind, as well as her heart, for what she was about to do was the craziest thing she’d ever done in her life. And success hinged on someone that likely didn’t even exist outside of her dreams. Raine.