Shadowed Blade (Colbana Files Book 6)

by J. C. Daniels

  We’d had to cut through South Carolina to do it, and then again on the way back.

  I’d caught the scent of a few ferals on my way out, south of our general location. But nothing out of hand, really. It had been worse, actually, on my last trip in.

  Worse.

  And yet they had insisted...

  “Cover up,” I muttered. They were doing a cover up. Most humans had left South Carolina anyway, leaving the population under half a million at the last census and more were being offered various incentives if they, too, would leave. Civil security is our highest concern. We don’t understand why this land is so appealing to the ferals who have nested here, but many were changed here and we know that vampires are territorial. We feel that they will not spread beyond the borders. You will be safer elsewhere and we will help you find new homes.

  That had been part of the lip service offered to those who would voluntarily just go.

  There was another puzzle there, but I’d have to figure it out later.

  Pilar sounded the all clear and we continued on, moving maybe another two miles before Mike send back word that the scents were getting stronger.

  Humans. Maybe your friend—the woman. Hard to say. Something harsh in the air, messing with my nose.

  Something harsh. I couldn’t smell anything, but my nose wasn’t as good as a shifter.

  “You smelling anything yet?” I asked Doyle.

  “Maybe. I—”

  He never really had a chance to finish that thought.

  Up ahead, I heard somebody, Mike, I think, call out a warning.

  “Hold up, guys…this…whatever it is, it’s getting stronger.”

  “Unless it’s life or death, you can figure it out while we move,” Pilar said and as I looked up to tell her to stop, it happened.

  Time shifted and spun away on me.

  It was like I’d been flung straight into the past.

  Spikes sprung up, out, from the sides, while something swung down from the air. More of them, mounted on what might have passed for an oversized child’s swing, save for those thick, deadly spikes.

  All of the shifters reacted with fluid, easy grace, moving out of the way. But in the time it took them to not be where there was a spike, more of them came up and arrows started to rain down.

  Fast…so fast.

  I’d only ever once seen somebody who could shoot like that.

  Fear began to burn in my throat, my breaths coming in harsh, ugly bursts. Denial turned me into something so useless, the only thought I was even capable of for a few seconds was…run.

  My brain kept shrieking that warning, over and over and over…

  “Kit.”

  Doyle’s voice, harsh and heavy, reached my ears, dragging me slowly out of the past.

  Shaking with terror, I looked over at him.

  He was pinned between one of the traps that had swung down out of the tree and another. An arrow pinned his sleeve to the tree, while one hand gripped the rope that had been used to rig the tree-trap. It was, unsurprisingly, wrapped in silver wire so his hand smoked.

  He wasn’t the only one trapped up in silver, so smoke was a steady stream in the air, mixing with the smell of cooked meat.

  “Told you dumb fucks I smelled something,” Mike said, sounding so completely disgusted. “Something on these spikes. Don’t let them touch your skin.”

  “We can’t be poisoned,” Pilar said.

  “It’s not poison,” I said.

  I wasn’t the only one who said it.

  She emerged from the shadows just as Nova moved up to stand at my side, his hand resting on my shoulder.

  At first, I couldn’t see her at all, her clothes blending so seamlessly with the dappled moonlight, she looked like she belonged to the shadows.

  Recognition hit.

  “You,” I whispered as a fist reached up and grabbed my throat.

  It was the woman who had called me and warned me.

  It was the woman who had shown up just as Justin and I finished dealing with Chaundry.

  The woman with the raspy voice.

  As I watched, she straightened, rising to her full height and reached up to pull down the mask covering her face.

  The sight of her was a punch to my gut, hard and brutal.

  “Hello, niece.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I had my bow up, an arrow nocked in the next few seconds, leveled straight at her.

  She stood on the far side of the clearing—such a perfect place for an ambush and I’d led my team right into it.

  Stupid, stupid Kit.

  “I’m not going back,” I said quietly. “If that’s what this whole set up is for, you just might as well kill me now. I will never go back.”

  Rana cocked her head, studying me with curiosity. “You’re even faster than you were. Impressive. You didn’t call your weapon, though. Curious.”

  Then she looked away from me and picked her way through the trap of spikes to stand near Pilar who was at the perimeter. “I should tell you that your packmate is correct. If you even scratch yourself on one of the spikes, you’ll be…” Rana’s lips curved in a cool smile. “Quite useless for quite some time. Not dead, however. It’s rude to kill for no reason and I’m not here on business. I hope you appreciate the warning—and heed it.”

  “Rude.” I bit back a laugh that probably would have been tinged with hysteria if I let it out. Watching her with trepidation as she edged closer, I eased back a little more. Nova. He could… I tried to gather my thoughts to reach out to him. If he could just do something about the spike trap, then...

  Fuck.

  “Trying to puzzle your way through this, I can tell. Would it make it easier if I tell you I have no interest in bringing harm to your friends?” Rana had fully circled them now and was standing close to Doyle—very close. “You’re the boy.”

  A low growl rumbled in his chest as he stared at her, blue eyes glowing brilliantly.

  “That’s probably because you’re too smart to pick a fight with two shifter factions.” I felt like I was going to puke. My heart was pounding in my ears, so hard and fast and loud, it was making thought all but impossible. I had to think, had to figure something out.

  But what?

  “There is that. And you haven’t answered. Why didn’t you call the bow? You’ve got a bond with her. I hear the music. It’s…sad. Your weapons are lonely, Kitasa.”

  “Fuck you.” I spat the words out at her, thinking of all the times she’d stood over me while I lay bleeding in the dirt. Thinking of how often she’d stood by Fanis’ side.

  Her right eyebrow winged up and something very close to amusement danced in her bright eyes. “You have claws now, don’t you? I always suspected you’d grow them.”

  She took another step toward me.

  “Come any closer and you’ll get an up-close and personal look at my claws, Auntie Dearest,” I said.

  I heard Doyle’s swift intake of breath and I could have kicked myself for my stupidity. It was too late to take it back. His anger flooded the air, the rush of it rolling across my skin.

  Rana felt it, too.

  “Ah…you’ve got yourself a protector there, don’t you?” She angled her head, one of her long braids falling over her shoulder as she looked back at him. “What would he do if I tried to attack? Risk the injury he knows he’ll get?”

  “I’ll kill you,” Doyle said, his voice no longer human. Stripes were ghosting in and out of his skin as he struggled with the beast inside him. “Be smart, bitch, and just walk away. This is trouble you don’t want.”

  “You’re quite right there…boy,” she said, shaking her head. “If I’d had my way, it wouldn’t have come to this. But if it wasn’t me, it would be another.”

  Then she looked at me. “Kit, you want it to be me.”

  “I’m not going back.”

  “Why didn’t you call your bow, Kit?” she asked again, her voice hard.

  The sound of it almost made me fl
inch, too close to the way she would speak out on the training fields. Don’t lower that guard, fledgling. Are you a warrior or not?

  “I can’t.” I bit it off angrily, hating to make that admission to her, more than anybody else.

  “Haven’t you learned how to call other weapons?” Her gaze flicked to the sword at my hip. “You have your mother’s sword—my sister’s sword. It last sat in the chambers of my mother. Your queen. You’ve been charged with theft, Kitasa. If you cannot prove you mastered that weapon, you know what the penalty is.”

  “It’s my sword.” Heat gathered in my hand.

  “Prove it.” She lunged for me.

  Oh, hell.

  Terror rose inside my head, a scream that came from the very depths of my nightmares. I swallowed it down and tried to channel that fear into fuel as I flung my bow down and dove to the side.

  I came up in a crouch, sword in hand.

  “That’s drawing it.” Rana eyed me steadily. “Very fast. But you still drew it. If you don’t want to face death at the hands of the Tribunal, call your sword.”

  “It’s in my fucking hands—”

  She came at me hard and fast, a blur of silver and steel and speed that had me backing up.

  Somewhere off to my side, I heard a growl, followed by a scream that ended far too soon.

  “They think to get free and interfere. To save you,” Rana said, her voice as calm and steady as her eyes. She slashed down, forcing me to evade or risk evisceration since I hadn’t gotten my guard up.

  I was off balance and off rhythm.

  “What I will do is simply kill you if you cannot show me what I need to know. Then I will kill each of them. None of them are fast enough to stop me—”

  Enraged, I ducked under the next strike and swung out.

  “You’re letting your temper control you. You were taught better than that.”

  Bitch. Fucking bitch. I hated her and I hated that she was right. Needing a few seconds to breathe, to level out, I darted into the slim, scraggly trees. I was smaller and—

  Faster.

  That caught me off guard, but it was the truth. Using the trees to my advantage, I managed to come up behind her. Finally—

  A form moving off in the shadows distracted me for the slightest second, costing me what would have been my one advantage. Rana heard me and spun around, bringing the blade in a wide arc.

  I went backward, avoiding the blow that could have taken my head.

  “Very good. It seems you’ve continued your training. You shouldn’t concern yourself with your friends, however. If you do…well, there won’t be anything left of you. Prove yourself and end this, Kitasa.”

  “How do I do that? Kill you?” I asked, my breaths coming in harsh pants.

  We’d moved back out into the clearing and a stray ray of moonlight fell across her blue eyes. She looked like she wanted to laugh. “Do you think you can?”

  I sure as hell wanted to try.

  I took a chance and moved in close, trapping her longer arms and legs up. It almost worked.

  She knocked me back and I ended up on my ass, leaping up a split second before she would have been on top of me.

  Something glittered out of the corner of my eye.

  “You’re getting distracted again, Kitasa.”

  Something pulsed at the back of my head.

  “So far, I haven’t seen anything that proves to me that you can call that blasted sword.” Rana’s jaw went tight as she began another frontal assault that had me scrambling to evade her.

  My foot caught on something.

  I heard somebody snarl—a howl.

  Growling.

  That glittering...

  “Ah…you see it, don’t you?”

  I tore my gaze from the shield, a simple bolster-style that really shouldn’t seem so lovely. But I knew it. It had lain under a delicately etched cover of glass, next to my sword.

  It, too, had been my mother’s.

  Each breath burned as I managed to catch myself before I would have gone down. Rana swung her blade lazily. Sweat gleamed on her face but her breaths were only the slightest bit accelerated.

  “You know that shield, don’t you?”

  I didn’t answer her.

  “It’s a pity that you’re not a true warrior,” she said with a sad smile. “It might have saved you.”

  She lunged once more. I got my sword up, but it did little good.

  She had me disarmed in a move I should have seen coming—she’d used it on me so many times.

  As the blade went flying, she kicked me in the stomach. I went flying, too. In a different direction.

  Unable to move or breathe now, hearing nothing but the pounding in my head, panic swelling inside me, I tried to make my body move. That glittering shield looked so terribly bright—

  “I’m sorry for this, Kitasa.”

  I closed my eyes and screamed.

  Pain exploded through the back of my head.

  There were growls.

  Metal swung down.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Her blade, swift and true, came down and struck.

  The shield, burning hot in my hands, vibrated as they connected and a sound, clear as a bell, echoed throughout the clearing.

  Dumbstruck, I lay there.

  I just lay there.

  Rana acted first.

  Instinct told me to move, to get up, get away.

  She crouched by my side and as I stared at her, a faint smile appeared on her implacable, emotionless face. “That took long enough. You have a head like your mother’s, I think.”

  “…what?”

  She rose and held out a hand.

  Suspicious, I scooted backward and rose on my own. My legs were shaking under me as the adrenaline drained away. The shield. It felt unbelievably heavy. When I went to adjust it, my fingers brushed the metal and again, I heard bells.

  I heard him.

  The shield.

  And a dozen other weapons, clamoring to be heard.

  Most of all, I heard the soft, patient music of my blade from where she lay on the ground some twenty yards.

  Twenty yards.

  I could walk it in seconds.

  Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.

  My palms heated.

  I heard her—

  The solid weight of her was in my hand in the next instant.

  I heard a harsh intake of breath from the clearing and Doyle said my name, but I didn’t look at him. I had eyes only for my aunt.

  “How did you do that?” I demanded, looking at Rana.

  “I did nothing.” She lifted a shoulder negligently. “It would appear somebody else did something. I could feel the…rift. But it was mended. However, the first time you call your weapon tends to come with a surge of adrenaline. Fear. The bond had been damaged, then rebuilt. Crudely, but it was done. You had to reestablish that bond…again, with fear. Adrenaline.” Her eyes went sharp and hot. “Were you afraid the first time you called the blade, Kit?”

  “I…” My mouth was dry. I so didn’t want to answer that.

  The first time I’d called it had been when I killed one of my cousins. One of her charges.

  As if sensing what was in my head, she studiously turned her attention to her own blade, giving it a thorough inspection. “A body was found outside the pit where you were held. There was a struggle. Nobody knows what happened and it was declared non-criminal.”

  “By whom?”

  Rana inclined her head. “As I was the chief marshal at the time…by me. There were no charges for that death. I can say nothing for…similar deaths however. But you can call the blade and the shield. They are your weapons.”

  “Be still.” I smacked Doyle on the shoulder before turning my attention back to his hand. There were shredded bits of silver wire in his hand. We could leave them alone and they’d work themselves out, but he’d heal slower as long as there was silver in his system so I wanted all of it gone

  He wa
s still staring at Rana, though, his eyes glittering, full of rage.

  “Damon will want her dead. I want her dead,” he said.

  She glanced toward us.

  “She hears you,” I pointed out.

  “Do you think I care?”

  My head was pounding. The music of every weapon I had was jumbled up inside there. I’d forgotten how to tune them out and part of me was so happy to hear them, I didn’t want to.

  He did spare a look at me, finally. “You called that shield. Your sword.”

  “I know.” I kept my focus on his hand, pulled another sliver out.

  “How?”

  Before I could figure out how to answer, Nova dropped down next to us.

  Smalls bits of silver, all of them shreds, fell like miniature tinsel on the rock I’d been using to collect my shrapnel. “That’s all of it,” he said.

  “Who’s left?” Doyle asked. All of them had gotten silver in them as they tried to work past the traps without brushing up against the spikes.

  Nova looked at him. “You.”

  “Show-off,” I muttered. But I didn’t let go of Doyle’s hand. I needed the distraction.

  “You realize there’s a reason she did it the way she did,” Nova said, bracing his elbows on his knees and staring Doyle down.

  “You should learn to mind your own,” Rana said from her position by the small, smokeless fire she’d built.

  She was the only one who had one, and everybody had raised hell when she’d gone to build it. Then it had blazed to life without smoke and they’d sulked into silence, although a couple had grumbled how the light was a hazard.

  “Nobody who could see it can get close without one us hearing,” she’d pointed out. “You heard every last car. Have you another objection?”

  I would have made a similar fire. I knew how. But I wasn’t about to do it and show that weakness.

  Since those few comments, she’d lapsed into silence and looked at nobody and at nothing until now.

  Nova looked unconcerned, not even looking at her. “If I minded my own, you’d be dead. It was pretty hard standing there and watching all that play out. If I mind my own now…well…” He gave a one-sided shrug.

  “Watching it all play out,” Doyle said slowly.