Shadowed Blade (Colbana Files Book 6)

by J. C. Daniels

  “Chang.” Without looking away from the bow, I asked, “You said there were connections between him and the hospital?”

  “I might have stretched it a bit.” He smoothed his finger down his brow. “I was following a hunch, but his reaction confirmed it. Several of the men assigned to protect him early on weren’t fully human. Each of them disappeared. I had a contact in the Capitol try to find their families. Save for one, all of them are gone as well.”

  “And the one who isn’t gone?”

  Chang’s smile was cool. “Actually, you might not realize it, but you’ve already spoken to him—it was Mo’s brother. When he disappeared, she came here. He was a carrier and the last one to vanish. He had suspicions that something weird was going on within the Capitol and shared them with her. Told her if anything happened to him, she needed to get the hell out. That’s what she did. She was the one I contacted when I started needing to reach out and get more information about our odd, horned friend.”

  Connections…

  My mind seized on it.

  Mind-wipes. The hospital. “He would have sensed them right off, I bet…worried they’d figure him out, too. So he sends them away. Could have been a private assignment, or he’s out on a trip…”

  “Anything could have happened. We won’t know.” Damon’s hard voice cut the air. “I don’t give a damn. I want to know more about why Kit has to be the one to do him. He’s old. He’s a fucking demon.”

  “The bow can kill him. She is the only one here the bow will bond with.” Rana spoke patiently, the way she would if teaching a child how to use a weapon for the first time. Then she looked at me. “She answers to you. Only you. A Druidic weapon is one of the few things that can kill a minor demon like the puck. You don’t want to try one of the other ways. It’s not…fun.”

  “Try me,” Damon demanded.

  “Do you have any fairies handy?” Rana didn’t blink or bat an eyelash. “Perhaps a few tucked away inside your pocket? You need a larger one, at least hip high, so I don’t think that’s likely. You are rather large, but not quite that large.”

  Damon worked his jaw and I could see the snarl all but forming, the air around him starting to burn hot.

  “Fairies?” Chang said, politely clearly his throat.

  “Yes.” Rana didn’t look away from Damon. “They are, essentially, a puck’s Achilles heel. Find one, kill it, get the femur—it’s the strongest bone in the body. Make sure you save some of the blood, but don’t get it on you, because it’s somewhat poisonous.”

  I choked at that. Somewhat? How about lethally poisonous?

  She heard. I could tell by the way her lid twitched. But she didn’t pause. “You’ll need the blood. Sharpen the bone on one end, then let that end soak in the blood for twenty-four hours. Assuming you have that long. Once that is done, let it dry. Then you need to shove that bone into the puck, either the eye or the heart.” She waited a beat. “Did you get all of that, Alpha Lee or should I write it down? You don’t want to miss a step.”

  Every muscle in Damon’s body went tight.

  I put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I get that the two of you don’t like each other—”

  “On the contrary, I have nothing but respect for your cat, Kitasa.”

  The words caught me off guard. I doubt they meant much to Damon, but I had a feeling they surprised Chang.

  She continued, unfazed by my obvious surprise. “He took out a woman who was, at best, a psychotic bitch. At worst…well, I believe she and Fanis would have made great friends, if the Nerai hadn’t loathed shifters, one and all.”

  I hadn’t heard the term Nerai in years. Nerai—it meant Queen. Rana spat it out as though it tasted and felt like acid on her tongue.

  “There is a debt I owe him, one I can never repay.” Now she looked at directly at Damon. “But he knows nothing about this creature. I do. I know how it can be killed and I know the puck’s weaknesses and strengths.”

  “If he’s that dangerous—” Damon started out.

  “Can I kill him?”

  Rana’s lips curved. “If I thought you couldn’t, I would have already left to procure my own Druidic weapon. I didn’t know you had a bow, Kitasa, but the moment I saw the puck, I knew what had to be done—and I know where one Druidic weapon resides. After all, it’s quite a public item, is it not?”

  In an instant, I knew what she meant.

  “You’re insane if you think you can break into that museum and steal it.”

  “There is no place I can’t break into, nothing I cannot steal.” Rana lifted a shoulder. “But I would need time and I’d rather not leave you to this task alone, if I had any other way. I plan to be there with you when you go—I’ll guard your back until you return—or until the end, whatever that may be.”

  “You mean the staff on display at the National History Museum,” Chang said softly.

  “Yes.” She inclined her head. “I’ve known about it for…well, quite some time.”

  “Guard.” Damon said the word slowly as though he didn’t understand what it meant.

  I was actually doing the same thing, only silently. I wasn’t entirely sure I liked where her brain was going although logically I couldn’t deny there was sense in it.

  It was my emotions that were messing everything up. They did that a lot. Right now, my instincts and logic were sidling up and calmly laying things out and my emotions were going to get told to get fucked. That would happen because my instincts would win out. They always did.

  “Just what do you mean guard her?” Damon said, lips barely moving.

  “Do you truly want her going out there alone? A true warrior, the best of fighters, knows when she needs her back guarded. Kit is, without a doubt, a true warrior.” Her mouth quirked up as she raked Damon up and down with a look. “Do you think to guard her? This needs subtly. You have no subtly to you. Everything about you screams possessiveness and protectiveness. You all but reek of power and strength—it’s a wonder Annette didn’t order you to be assassinated the minute you stepped foot into her territory.”

  Damon’s brows shot up.

  “What…you seem surprised.” Rana settled back more comfortably. “There hasn’t been more than a month that has gone by when I haven’t been…around. I watched her. I watched the politics here. I watched you and the Alpha of the Wolf Pack. I always knew you’d end up as the Alpha.” She stroked the grip of her sword and glanced at Chang, her gaze lingering but a moment. “I’d even wager your man there knew as well. It’s the only reason he remained. As much as he loves those children he watches over, he’d never stay under that bitch’s heel if not for a reason. You were always the reason.”

  Chang hadn’t moved, hadn’t blinked.

  “Have you started seeing into the future?” I asked softly.

  “I don’t need to. I see into the soul.” Rana blinked, her lashes sweeping down to hide her eyes. “And I’ve been watching these two for a long, long while. Alpha Lee…you are a protector, a vengeful one, perhaps. But at your core? You wish to protect. That’s all well and good—in its place. But out there? It would get her killed.” Rana slanted a look at Chang. “Perhaps him. He is a protector as well, but he chooses those he protects more carefully. Children. And he’s had a long time to refine his art…he’s like a shadow. But nobody could watch her back as well as I could—not for this.”

  “You think I would trust you with her?”

  My temper snapped. “It’s not up to you.” I jabbed Damon in the chest before firing Rana a dark look. “And why should I trust you? You both need to quit talking about me like I’m not here. Done with it, okay? Now…let’s take a deep breath and talk. Logically.”

  Rana held up a hand, indicating her acquiescence.

  Damon, however, planted his hands on his hips. “Sure, Kit. We can talk about this logically. It’s not like you’d actually go with her. Right?”

  “It makes sense,” I said, forcing myself to keep my voice level and hoping I didn’t reve
al any of the nervousness I felt. “She trained me—I still move like her. She echoes my move and I echo hers. Nobody could back me up on a mission like she could. And when it comes to…” I almost said Whitmore and had to bite it back at the last minute. “The puck, she knows more things about him than I do. There was training I would have had, if…”

  Now I laughed and it was a hollow sound. “If I hadn’t been me, they would have taught me more. I already know things that none of you know. I know how to kill things you don’t even know exist. But she has knowledge of things I don’t know about. If I’m the one who’s going to have to use that bow, then I want all the best weapons I can have with me. One of them is knowledge—she has it. I don’t.”

  Damon’s shoulders were tight, and his eyes flashed green-gold. Anger stung my skin and I knew he was taking in every word—taking the words in and hating them.

  “Explain to me the sense in you going off on some suicide mission with her,” Damon said quietly. “The scars on you—the ones I can see and the ones I can’t—they won’t ever heal and she stood there while those beatings happened. She stood there while you were brutalized, time and again. You told me that.”

  His words were a slap, scraping against nerves that had been left raw ever since I’d seen my aunt’s face. My throat went tight and for a minute, I wanted to hit him. Hit him hard and then just…run. Run hard and fast and lose myself. “Damn you,” I said raggedly. “Do you think I don’t know that? That I’ve forgotten? I was there. I remember every lash from the whip and every blow from their fists. I remember every broken bone, every boot I took to the gut. I won’t ever forget.”

  “Then why are you even thinking about this?” he shouted. “You’re her blood and she turned her back on you!”

  “Because I know it’s the only way!” Whirling on Rana, I met her eyes, the pale blue of her gaze as cold as winter ice. Frozen, even. “He’s wrong, though. They turned their backs. Unless she ordered them to join in. I remember that, too. Aunt Reshi—Rathi’s beloved mum…she was the oldest, next to you. She’d join in or turn and hide her face. The others, they could barely stand to look at me. But you…you would just stand there, staring at me, through every beating, every broken bone, every whipping. I want to know why.”

  I think I could have asked her almost anything and it wouldn’t surprise her.

  But that did. She backed up a step, her hand slipping to the grip of her short sword. “The why doesn’t matter. We have a job that must be done. Are we going to discuss that—and keeping these people you seem to cherish alive?”

  “We can. After I have my answer.” Absently, I went to rest my hand on the hilt of my blade, only to remember I’d put my weapons away. I flexed my hand, but I didn’t call her. I wouldn’t. I didn’t need her to talk. “I need to know why.”

  Something told me the answer to my question was vital.

  I thought perhaps she would just turn and walk out. But in the end, she sighed, weary. Sitting, she drew her sword and placed it on the table, holding the grip for a moment as if in prayer—or for courage. For me, it was often both. When she let go, she looked at me. “How much do you remember of your mother?” The words came out softly, almost a whisper.

  It wasn’t what I had expected to hear. Not at all.

  Uncertain, I glanced over at Damon. I don’t even know why. I just needed…something. He touched the small of my back. He didn’t like this—didn’t like her. But he loved me and that light touch gave me what I needed. “I barely have any memories.” Licking my lips, I closed my hands into fists, nails biting my palms and fought the urge to ask why she was asking, what my mother had to do with anything.

  Because I already knew—everything.

  That was clear by the look in Rana’s eyes. Solemn and quiet, sad and full of memory. I wanted to tell her to forget it, that it didn’t matter. I couldn’t. I’d never been one to take the easy way out. Even when I wanted to.

  “There are flashes, bits and pieces. I’ll hear her voice, a few forgotten words or a line from a song.” My voice tried to break but I didn’t let it. “I’ll see the two of you as you danced across the training fields in front of the Hall. Swords would flash and the metal sang. Not much.”

  “Your mother was my best friend.” Rana stared off into the distance. It was the past she saw. I knew it, without even asking. “I am the oldest—four had died before you were even born. Your mother was the youngest—fifty years separated us. I all but raised her. When she died, it was almost like I had lost my own daughter, not just my sister. Something inside me died that day. I wasn’t there with her…but I knew. I was the one who left to bring back her body, her blade and her shield. I left you with Reshi. She…she didn’t know our sister was dead. She wouldn’t dare lift a hand to you. Was fond of you, even. She still had a spine then.”

  Emotion, hot and powerful began to pulse inside her, lighting her eyes. Rage—hate—so hot and powerful, it was a wonder it hadn’t eaten her alive.

  “Trisera died on a suicide mission. She knew it would kill her.” Rana paused and looked away. Her lashes swept low and in a voice so faint, I barely heard it, she added, “We both knew.”

  My heart was beating so hard, blood pounding so hot, I felt sick. Trisera. Mum… I wanted to weep. Wanted to hit something. Had she died for nothing? Damon smoothed a hand up my back. Sucking in a breath of air, I caught the metallic taste of blood on it, but didn’t realize it was because I’d torn ragged gashes into my hands until Damon leaned against the table and forced my hands to unclench. Chang held something out to him and Damon took it, pressing a soft piece of cotton to the minor wounds as Rana continued to speak.

  “Tris—your mother—had a choice to make. And so did I. And I’ve lived with the guilt ever since. Just as I have had to live with the guilt over what my mother did to you.”

  “Bullshit,” I snarled. It came out of me in a torrent, like acidic vomit, too poisonous to contain but almost too poisonous to let it out. I almost lunged over the table for her, but Damon caught my arm, stayed me. Why? Why wasn’t he letting me attack her now?

  “Doubt it.” Rana’s words rang hollowly around us. “I don’t blame you. Hate me. I do not blame you. I would hate me as well. However, there were actions that had to be carried out and choices that had to be made. Neither one of us saw any other out. The choice was simple and awful—your mother could go on the fool’s errand the Nerai had sent her on, knowing she would die and leave you alone. Or stay at Aneris Hall and I would take up the job. I would die—and make no mistake, I was happy to do it. But we were both practical, Kitasa. I was older.” She laughed bitterly. “I was supposed to be wiser and I was being…trained to take over in the Nerai’s stead. Who would do better at protecting you? Watching over you? Fanis already despised you—you were Tris’ weakness. Her mistake…she’d fallen in love with a human and you’d carry that weakness inside you.”

  “In the end, we knew the truth.” Rana looked away. “I tried to hide from it, but Tris wouldn’t let me. I was strong. Fanis weakens more every year—she held her reign too long and rules through fear rather than strength now. There will come a time when I can dispatch her, but your mother…it would’ve been ages, perhaps half a century before she could take our Queen on.”

  Rana rose and paced over to the window, speaking in a low voice, soft and steady now. “But she would have tried. Perhaps I could defy her now and survive, defeat her even, but she would have tried then—and she would have suffered for it. Suffered, then died. And you with her.”

  I flinched at that hard, harsh statement and when Rana turned to fix her icy eyes on me, I wanted to hide. “Tell me, child. What choice do you think she made? She would have crossed hell for you.” Her lashes fell. “As would I. The two of you were…well. You were my world.”

  I wanted to deny those words, yell at her for them, tell her to take them back. But the truth in them was stark, plain. Because I couldn’t walk away from them, I ignored them instead. “What are you talkin
g about?” I demanded. “What’s this so-called choice? You say you knew what she was going to do? What does that mean? How did you know?”

  Each successive question sounded more panicked than the last, but I couldn’t stop it and when she just stared at me, it only added to my panic. “And you talk like you’ve always known where I was and you act like you’ve known Damon half your life, but I know that’s not true and…”

  Rana inclined her head and gave me that appraising look—

  I knew that look.

  “What?” The whisper squeezed out of me. There was no other way to describe it.

  “There hasn’t been more than a few weeks when I haven’t known where you were—from the time you killed the man in the truck…even then, I knew where you were,” Rana said softly. “When you were stolen away from here, locked up high in the cold mountains? I was on my way. I spoke to you as best as I could—your mind was closed, but I think you heard. I spoke to you then. Your friends arrived before I did. But even then, I knew where you were, and I was coming.” Her eyes flashed with a hatred so bright, it cut right through me. “There would be nothing but pieces had I arrived first.”

  I sagged, the shock so consuming, I couldn’t breathe.

  The days I never wanted to remember slammed into me and I was back inside those rooms, tucked into a small ball and hiding. Starving myself and wishing for death, praying that Jude would never come back, or that I would die before he did.

  You’re not eating.

  How can you be strong enough to flee from him if you do not eat? He is vampire and will not think to notice that until you drop from exhaustion or somebody tells him and his slaves fear him too much to mention it. You have to eat, Kitasa—

  “You.” Too staggered to even stay upright, I started to slump downward. It was only Damon who kept me from sitting on the floor. He caught me and eased me into a chair. “I thought I’d imagined it—hearing your voice while I was trapped inside that room. But you...”