Shadowed Blade (Colbana Files Book 6)

by J. C. Daniels

  “Problem.” Doyle’s voice was soft. “We’re more than a hundred yards out.”

  “Don’t be so technical.” Nova eased closer to those pin-prick lights.

  “Careful…” Roper advised.

  My heart leaped up into my throat, my hands going slick with sweat.

  “Relax. I can see the lines.” Nova’s voice had gone soft, almost hypnotic.

  “It’s electrical?” I asked when a few of them looked confused.

  Roper shrugged. “It’s powered. Doesn’t run on air.”

  “Then he can see it. However far the range, he can see it. It’s just…what he does,” I said.

  “I can get them from here,” Nova said a moment later. His voice had gone dead.

  The sound of it sent a shiver down my spine. “If they move?”

  “Won’t matter. I’m already inside them.”

  “Okay.” I turned to Rana. “Can you get the one in the tree?”

  She just blinked at me. I guess she thought it was a request. Or maybe she was insulted.

  Turning to Roper and Pilar, I said, “I need you to show me where the power source is.”

  That took a little more time, and each second had the tension inside me ratcheting higher and higher. The power source didn’t provide line-of-sight to the others. Roper and I moved back to the others and I went to Doyle. “I need my pack.”

  “The suitcase?” With a smirk, he unstrapped a slim case he’d insisted on carrying. He knelt on the ground with me and watched as I opened it, going for the arrows I’d thought would be overkill. Ever since a little trip down to the Everglades, I’d decided overkill was good.

  When I’d seen the explosive arrowheads, I’d never thought to need them, then remembered how I’d mused about a rocket launcher. I still hadn’t found the rocket launcher, but one of these buried in the chest of Jude would leave him in pieces so small, he’d never been able to put himself back together.

  They could pierce a tank.

  It would work well enough to destroy the power source for the motion sensors.

  “I need five minutes to get back there. Another five just to be safe.”

  Nova and Rana nodded their agreement. Nova asked, “Who is wrangling the dogs?”

  “I’ll handle them,” Mike said.

  “I’ll stand by in case,” Mo added. “And I’m watching the gate. We were running it through while you were taking your walk in the woods.”

  “You have to grab Justin and Colleen fast,” Nova said. “They’ll be in bad shape. Who’s on that?”

  “I am. I’m taking Roper with me.” Doyle’s gaze slid my way.

  “I’ll be there.” Shifting my gaze to Nova, I stared at him. “This is going to hit hard, right? You need hands after?”

  He hitched a shoulder. “Might be. We’ll see.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on him.” Rana continued to study the burl up in the tree, not looking at any of us.

  “I don’t think so,” Doyle said tightly.

  “I’m fine with that.” Nova shot him a narrow look. “You worry about your end, cat.”

  Unease tugged at me, but I shook my head at Doyle. “We don’t have time for it. Nova’s the last person to put himself at risk—so if he’s okay with it, don’t argue.”

  We went through everything one more time.

  My gut twisted as I turned to jog through the woods.

  If this didn’t work...

  Don’t, I told myself.

  There’s something imminently serene, peaceful about firing a bow.

  I’d brought African blackwood bow that Damon had bought for me on the job down in the Everglades. Hearing her slow, steady drumbeat echoing my heart was almost hypnotic. And even, especially after so much time with nothing but silence in my head.

  Even though the urgency of the job propelled me, for those few seconds, as I drew the string back, everything in the world ceased to exist.

  There was no hospital.

  There was no crazy, cruel grandmother.

  There was no aunt just a few hundred yards away who may or may not spell my downfall.

  There was just me, the night air, and wind that teased my hair as I breathed in, breathed out.

  Time—

  The weighted arrow cut through the night, slicing at it like a blade.

  I put myself behind the large, sturdy oak just as it made impact.

  The blast rocked the peaceful silence and I gave myself only a few seconds to make sure nothing was going to pelt me before I sprinted back to the others.

  The pin-point lights were gone.

  For the briefest second, there was nothing but silence—

  Then the baying of dogs rose in the air.

  A howl joined in just as I drew abreast with Doyle.

  “What took you so long?”

  “Shut up.”

  Roper and he settled into what had to be an easy jog for them. I ran full out. It didn’t take us long to get inside; even though I knew I was fast, I wished I were faster.

  Nova stayed behind, Rana with her sword in hand.

  We came upon the first body not even twenty feet inside the gate.

  A gate that was tucked up against a very real, very finished wall, I realized.

  They weren’t supposed to have finished any of the wall.

  I almost stumbled when I caught sight of it, but I steadied myself and pushed even harder. They had walls. Real ones. Partly built out of the stone of the mountain, much of it was freestanding and the very same design of the skeletal walls that were beginning to go up around the heavily forested infested zones in the state.

  A state that was almost a dead zone now, a state that was moving to cede all governing authority to the feds, because there wasn’t enough income from their citizens to provide for a working state government.

  Shoving all of that into the back of my mind, I leaped up the steps to the building where Nova had said we’d find Justin and Colleen.

  And we would.

  I could feel them—him more than her. I didn’t understand that—couldn’t figure out why—and it scared the hell out of me.

  There were three more people inside the house.

  One of them was alive. The other two were little more than bone bags.

  The one who still breathed looked at me, his face a mask of pain. “Take…” His eyes squeezed shut for a long moment. “Take me with you.”

  I fought the urge to drive my foot into his face. “No chance of that.”

  “Nova…says…you…take…” He gritted his teeth with each word. “Getoutgetoutgetout—”

  Abruptly, his head was slammed against the wall and his eyes went foggy.

  “Shit.”

  “Precisely,” he said, his voice different now. “Kit, honey, just take the man. It’s hard holding him like this after the work I just did.”

  “What the fuck?” Roper whispered.

  “It’s Nova.”

  They looked at me, confused.

  “That’s Nova talking now,” I said, irritated. Gesturing to the man who now watched with calm, placid eyes, I continued. “That’s Nova inside his head, talking to us. He wants us to take this bastard with us.”

  “He can…” Roper stopped, shook his head. “The witches.”

  “We’ll manage it if Kit says we need to,” Doyle said. “But he comes last.”

  We continued on, coming to a stop at the end of the hall. It was obvious where they were, because the smell of blood was so thick in the air, it choked us.

  When we stepped inside, rage dropped over me so hot and thick, I thought it would smother me.

  There was a form on the first bed that didn’t even look human. Limp, with bits of loose flesh hanging from it, my brain didn’t want to process what I was seeing.

  A low, near animalistic growl came from the corner.

  “If you touch him...”

  That voice broke my heart.

  “Coll...”

  “Don’t touch him.”

&n
bsp; I waved Doyle and Roper back. “Give me a minute.”

  “We might not have it,” Doyle warned.

  “We have it.” I eased forward, going to the other…well, I couldn’t call it a bed. It had been destroyed, twisted and malformed by something no human could do.

  Colleen didn’t look like herself. In just days, she’d lost weight, shrunk down in on herself. They’d cut her hair, hacked at it, leaving her with patches where it was practically bald.

  “Leenie, it’s me.”

  She flinched at the sound of my voice.

  “Leenie.”

  She huddled down.

  Reaching out, I went to touch her knee.

  She struck out.

  It shocked me so much, I couldn’t move.

  And she screamed, clutching her head as though she’d been struck—with something sharp.

  She’d hit me.

  Colleen, who’d never raised her hand to anything in her life.

  She’d hit me.

  What had they done to her?

  As I sat there, horrified, she balled up her fist and swung out, but this time, she drove her fist into her temple, once, twice—

  I caught her wrist before she could do it again.

  That resulted in her swiping out with her other hand, fingers hooked as though she meant to claw my eyes out.

  “If you need to bloody me to get this out of your system, Leenie, that’s fine. I’m happy to let you,” I said quietly. “But first…can you help me save Justin?”

  Her body tensed at that. “Justin...”

  “Yes. Justin. Colleen, it’s me. It’s Kit. I’m going to get you and Justin out of here.”

  A harsh shudder wracked her body and she tried to twist away. I didn’t let her.

  “Come on. Look at me...”

  She didn’t want to. I’d take more time if I could, gentle her back to herself like she’d once done for me.

  But while I’d take a minute, or several, to reach her, I didn’t have time for more. We had to get out of there.

  “Leenie…” I pleaded now, pleaded for her to hear me, for something to reach her.

  “Kit.” Her voice broke as she said it. But the clouds had started to clear. “Kit.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “How are they to travel?”

  The question was delivered in a soft voice two hours later.

  We’d lowered the seats in the back of the larger SUV, and Rana and I had piled in to do what we could for them.

  Justin had been…brutalized.

  His heartbeat was so faint, I could barely make it out.

  Colleen had stopped speaking.

  “We don’t have a choice.” I was calling in favors, though. Not that I planned on telling my aunt that. “You know, you can go. Like…any time now.”

  “Is that your way of telling me that I’m not welcome?” She wasn’t looking at me. She remained bent over Justin. One of his legs had been shattered and run through with nails—iron nails. She was slowly and carefully removing each one.

  Considering that I doubted I could do what she was doing—not with Justin—I decided not to respond. Instead, I turned my attention to Colleen and brushed her hair back from her face. “Colleen. You’re safe. Do you hear me? You’re safe.”

  She didn’t respond, but I wasn’t looking for a response.

  “Why did the psychic insist you bring the human?”

  She was going to insist on talking to me, wasn’t she?

  “I’ll have to ask the psychic when he wakes up from his beauty sleep.” I stroked Colleen’s hair for a few more seconds and then fished out my phone from a cargo pocket. There were a dozen messages—from Chang, Damon, Alisdair. I’d texted all of them to let them know we were on the road, that we’d accomplished what we’d set out to do. Each had questions, Damon had a few demands…he was the bossy type. Chang had information. I’d read them all, responded to a few.

  There were a few missed calls—some hadn’t bothered to leave messages, but others had.

  One was recent and from a contact at Banner—not somebody I liked, either.

  We’ve been advised that you might be involved in some illegal activities taking place in the South Carolina area. We need to verify your whereabouts, Ms. Colbana, promptly.

  I ran my tongue across my teeth and decided to forward the message to Chang.

  He responded immediately.

  I’ll handle it, but you need to be back in the city by daybreak. All of you.

  I looked at Justin.

  I’ll do my best. Justin’s in bad shape. Colleen won’t even speak.

  Chang’s response made me close my eyes.

  Get them here. We’ll take care of them.

  If only it was that simple.

  “Get them there…” I muttered. And what if we ended up being stopped?

  I needed help in the worst way.

  “When you ask for help, you don’t make small requests, do you?” The question was delivered in a stark, serious tone—no humor to it at all.

  “I’m sorry. If there was any other option...”

  “I understand, Kit. And we’ll give you aid.” The man on the phone sighed, so hard and loud that I heard the weariness in it. “Es was a friend of mine. You aided her house. Now mine will aid you and yours.”

  Hearing the name of a witch who’d died protecting me was enough to make a knot settle in my throat. “Thank you, William.”

  He made a grunt deep in his throat.

  I’d received a similar response when I’d put in a call to Allerton House.

  Vampires.

  I’d called vampires.

  Granted, Abraham had proven himself to be useful and more than trustworthy, but I was putting my faith in a vampire.

  He was already heading my way and Abraham, being what he was, had ways of traveling that didn’t rely on roads.

  He also knew ways in and out of Georgia that were less likely to be patrolled—he’d suggested one of the very same routes that had put me on the route to William’s house—the Green Branch house where I was taking Justin and Colleen. He’d been the one to tell me about the place to begin with. “There’s a Green Branch house along that highway…did you know?”

  I’d known there was a Green Branch house in the area, but not right there.

  Now, as I explained the troubles and what I needed, a quiet-spoken man on the other end of the line blew out a sigh. “We’ll clear your way, Ms. Colbana and no, none of my house will admit to seeing you. But we can only provide an all-clear through the night. Anything else will draw…attention our way. That’s dangerous these days.”

  “I understand.”

  “Wait in the front when you get here. I’ll come out to meet you. Do not leave your vehicles, am I understood?”

  “Yes.” If he wanted me to stand on my head and spin around, I’d do it. Help from a Green Branch witch was no small thing.

  We arrived less than thirty minutes after I made the call, and even once we were on their property and felt the safety of their wards close around us, I didn’t breathe much easier.

  The door opened and a man came up, his hand gripping the solid strap of a dog’s harness. I saw why immediately.

  William was blind. The members of his house trailed along behind him, although with far less grace. They couldn’t see either. That was for mechanical reasons. They had blindfolded themselves.

  None in my house will admit to seeing you...

  “Speak, Colbana. It will help guide them.”

  A little bemused, I said, “Hello.”

  Like a magnet, they surged forward, surrounding us.

  Magic swallowed us whole. It was quiet and delicate, settling inside my skin with barely a whisper.

  It was fast work, too.

  When it ended, William turned his head. “There are injured.”

  One of the witches reached up and tugged the blindfold, studiously not looking toward us. “I can walk you over, Father.”

  “It must be quic
k. The rest of you, back into the house.”

  Something that might have been relief burst inside me as the middle-aged man came closer. He wasn’t as powerful as some witches I’d known, but there was a serious buzz to him. “Open the door to the one that bleeds. I’ll stop that and deaden the pain. It will stabilize him. I can’t do anything else.”

  His eyes came to my face. “I don’t do this to be selfish. Great magic leaves an echo. If we do too much, they might sense it.”

  “Ah…yeah, that’s fine. Anything you can do to help him.”

  “Of course.”

  Justin screamed when William put his hands on his head—a low, inhuman scream that made me want to cry—and kill.

  It ended after five seconds and his mouth went slack.

  His entire body did, really.

  “He’s not hurting so much now,” I said softly.

  “He will rest. His body needs it.” William touched Justin’s brow once more. “This is Justin Greaves…had I known…” But he stopped and shook his head. “Stay on this road. I have a contact who can make sure the roads stay clear of law enforcement who might wish to hassle you. Just don’t stop for any reason. You have enough fuel?”

  “Plenty.” I touched his hand. “Thank you.”

  He gave a short nod. He went to draw back, but a sleepy voice stopped him.

  “Will?”

  The man frowned. “Well, damn. Nova? I should have...”

  I glanced at Nova who was still sprawled, mostly boneless, in the front seat. He turned his head sleepily toward the witch. “Have you decided to see the light and get the hell out of Georgia?”

  “Is it…” William pressed his lips together. “Have things changed, Nova?”

  “Not for me. Not seeing anything too shiny on your horizon, but things are going to get ugly here for a while. You should protect your house, man.” His vice got rougher, thicker. A moment later, he was asleep again.

  William’s jaw went tight.

  “You know about his…” I hesitated, uncertain how well he knew Nova.

  “I’ve known Nova since I was a boy.” William passed a hand over his thinning hair. “Yes, I know.”