by D. N. Leo
But as soon as his body flopped to the floor, the head grew back, and he stood back up. It was the same with the other soldiers Ciaran had killed. They all stood up, and they all had the same mummy look in their eyes.
Just then, Ciaran heard a clapping sound.
A golden round platform appeared, hovering in the air. On it stood a man with skin that looked like it had been dusted in gold. He looked like a statue of a pharaoh straight out of a pyramid. “That was quite a stunt, Ciaran LeBlanc,” he said. “You’ve lived up to your reputation in the multiverse, given the short time you’ve held a position of power.”
“Let me guess—you’re not in a position of power. Because if you were, you wouldn’t have to use a stunt to get me to your place.” Ciaran gestured widely. “Or whatever it is you call this filthy place.”
The man laughed. “You’re right. I don’t have any power. But if I fulfill the contract I have on your head, I’ll be able to afford a much better place. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to send you an invitation at that point. I don’t invite dead people to my house.”
Chapter 19
Mya’s palms were sweaty, and her teeth were clenched. She was nervous like she had never been before. Streaks of cold sweat ran down her spine irrespective of the stinking hot weather of the Australian outback. “Let Zach go. I’ll get you what you want.”
Kirra stood behind Zach. Her eyes were blank. Her skin cracked, and claws poked out from her fingertips. She grabbed Zach’s shoulder, her pointy claws pressed to his eudqi point.
“Kirra, I know you’re in there. The evil is possessing you. Don’t let it win!” Leon called out.
Zach was dazed by the impact of the claws on his shoulder, but he managed to stand. Mya knew he would swivel away as soon as he saw an opportunity.
He was calling Ciaran on his wrist unit. Mya should have been paying more attention to Kirra, but she’d been distracted by the thought of going to Eudaiz with Zach. Then at that moment, Kirra leaped at Zach from behind. To be fair, she knew it wasn’t really Kirra. Elanora’s soul had taken Kirra’s form. She had warned Zach, but he had been preoccupied. She should have been watching his back. She hadn’t done a very good job.
Kirra’s eyes flickered. She could see shades of Kirra moving in and out of those eyes. But Elanora was strong, and she had pretty much taken her over. Kirra tried to drag Zach away. Although dazed, Zach stood still and maintained his position.
“Come with me,” Elanora spoke from Kirra’s body. She pulled at Zach again. He resisted and tried to shrug his shoulder away without success.
“Kirra, be strong! Don’t let the evil take over!” Leon cried.
Mya looked at him. She had never seen Leon so emotional. “I don’t think she can do that, Leon. She’s not strong enough and not equipped for this. She’s gone. I’m sorry.”
“Let’s go, Zach,” Elanora said again and pressed Zach’s shoulder harder.
“Go my ass!” Zach yanked off his wrist unit, threw it in the air, pulled out his gun, and shot at it. The wrist unit exploded into hundreds of pieces. Mya didn’t know how much time Zach had spent playing hologames, but the stunt was impressive. He obviously didn’t waste the skills he practiced in the games.
Elanora shrieked in anger. While she was distracted, Zach swiveled away and ducked aside. Even so, Elanora still managed to claw his shoulder.
As soon as Zach got away, Mya roared. A thousand years’ worth of her deity power curled into a fireball, and she threw it at Elanora. The fireball expanded like a hot air balloon. She charged forward and grabbed the dagger Zach had dropped on the ground, planning to throw it and pierce Eleanora’s heart just like the image of Kirra floating in the fire with the knife through her heart that she had seen in her vision.
Leon flew at Mya, holding her back. “That’s enough, Mya. She’ll burn to death. That fire will send her to hell. You don’t need the dagger.”
Mya kicked her legs but couldn’t get free of Leon’s grip.
Kirra screamed in agony, begging to be let out of the fire.
“Can’t you let her go?” Leon asked.
“No, it’s not Kirra, Leon. She’s gone. That’s Elanora. You said so yourself. She’s taken other people’s forms, so she’s more evil than ever now. I have to send her to hell. Let go of me.”
“No, Mya, please. Can’t you do this for me?”
“Leon, I can’t bring Kirra back. I need to check on Zach. Let me go…”
Kirra kept screaming as the fire grew hotter.
They heard a roar. Down the hill behind them charged the black cat. It half ran, half flew and darted straight at the fire. When it got close, it shifted into a man.
“Dex!” Leon gasped.
Dex ran straight into the fireball and snatched Elanora in Kirra’s form into his arms. Then there was a small explosion inside the fire. Dex and Elanora dropped into the ground as the soil exploded upward and put out the fire, leaving a big hole in the ground the size of a house.
Mya darted toward Zach and said, “Let me see your back.” Before Zach could say anything, she peeled his shirt off and saw that Elanora had missed his eudqi point. The scratch was way below it, and blood was seeping out of the gash. Mya never did like the sight of blood, but it was far better than seeing that silver substance leaking out of him.
They heard a thud. A ball of dirt, grass, and maybe fur appeared. It rolled, expanded, and opened in front of them.
Ciaran scrambled to his feet, still trying to yank his left hand out of the mouth of a leopard. He pulled out his dagger and stabbed until the animal let go. It eased away but peeled off his wrist unit before doing so. Ciaran fell to the ground but stood up instantly and pulled his gun. Before the leopard ran away with his wrist unit in its teeth, he aimed at its head and fired. The head exploded, along with the wrist unit.
“Wow, he’s good!” Leon said.
Ciaran whirled around and pointed the gun at Zach.
“Whoa, whoa, it’s me! Don’t shoot!” Zach said.
Ciaran paused, then he lowered his gun. He glanced around. “This is Earth!” Ciaran said incredulously.
“Yes, and it has been for a long time,” Zach said. “This is Mya. That’s Leon, my successor.” Zach pointed to Ciaran. “And this is Ciaran LeBlanc, king of Eudaiz.”
Ciaran nodded in greeting. Or maybe his body just swayed as he tried to regain his balance.
Mya had never seen Ciaran up close. He was magnificent. Striking gray eyes, thick black hair that almost touched his shoulders, the face of a dark angel, and the body of a warrior. He had a tall, lean build and seemed incredibly agile even though, at the moment, he was badly injured. He looked as if he had just battled the entire galaxy.
“You’re a mess, Ciaran,” Zach said.
“Why don’t you try fighting an army of mummies in disguise, a pack of animals whose life mission is to eat me alive, and truckloads of pharaoh lookalikes who think they’re gods.”
Zach glanced around. “Where are they?”
Ciaran waved his injured hand. “The cat ate my wrist unit. I need to get back to Eudaiz to get to my tower to heal, or I’m going to crash right now. We’ll have to use your wrist unit to teleport me.”
Zach shook his head. “The cat wanted my wrist unit, too, so I destroyed it.”
Ciaran’s hands flopped to his sides. He opened his mouth to speak, but before a word could come out of his mouth, he fell face down onto the hot grass.
Chapter 20
Elanora opened her eyes and felt the warmth of Dex’s body pressed against her. She was lying in his arms. She had no idea it could feel so good. It wasn’t the physical contact but rather the sense of safety and the protection that oozed from every muscle in his body and poured into her. Sensing her movement, he released her and put her down on a soft and comfortable surface.
She ached everywhere. She opened her mouth to ask something, but he pressed his thumb gently against her lips. “Hush. You’re hurt. Give your body a bit of time to heal
.”
She could see the ceiling clearly now. Wherever he had brought her felt cozy, like a small cottage in the country. She was lying on a spacious bed. The linen was plain but neat and tidy. The fabric smelled pleasantly earthy. It smelled like…Dex.
She winced and felt the skin on her face crack with the movement.
“Try not to move too much,” Dex said and moved away for a moment, out of her sight. He came back quickly with a bowl of liquid. “I had this mixed for you. The shaman I use is really good. This medicine will heal you.”
He brought the bowl close to her lips and braced his large hand behind her neck to help her drink. She couldn’t move her lips.
“You don’t want to take this medicine, or you don’t trust me?”
She swallowed a lump in her throat and did her best to open her lips a fraction so that Dex could place the rim of the bowl in a position where she could consume the liquid without choking.
He was right—the medicine was good. The cool liquid ran down her throat, soothing the rough edges. Soon, she could feel the strength coming back to her. Dex sat at the bedside. It was the first chance she’d had to get a good look at him—he was sinfully handsome with a dark aura about him.
The room was so comfortable, and the tranquility in the air made her wish it could last forever. But she knew it wouldn’t. She wasn’t born to live in peace. This kind of luxury wouldn’t last until she had achieved what she had been born and raised to achieve.
“Where are we?”
“My home…I mean, house.”
She smiled. “You mean, this is the place you use only to sleep? I can smell the scent of you on this bed.”
“You make it sound almost romantic. Yes, I use this bed to sleep.”
“What happened?”
He frowned. “You don’t remember?”
“Yes, I was trying to stop the car. Zach Flynn and his girls were driving to Sydney, and I stopped them on the road. I borrowed the leopard packs to distract the deity so that I could get Zach and his wrist unit. That’s all I remember. But I’m injured now. So that means they beat me up. And you saved my ass.”
“Again!” Dex rumbled.
“I’m grateful. I never thanked you for what you’ve done for me.”
“No need. I care about you.”
“I guess I’m really messed up this time.”
Dex nodded. “Yep. More than you can imagine.”
“At least the mess you cleaned up isn’t my dead body.” She tried to smile, but it still hurt to move the muscles on her face.
Dex chuckled. “Hmmm… What’s done is done. I missed this opportunity. But I’ll get another one.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think you should rest.”
“No, tell me. I’m a big girl. You think I can’t take it…” She tried to sit up.
“You should rest more.”
“I will—if you tell me what I’m missing.” She leaned against the headboard and wiped a stray strand of hair from her forehead. Then she looked at her hand.
The hand she was looking at wasn’t hers.
She bolted up and scrambled out of the bed. Dex had anticipated her movement and caught her just before she fell to the floor. He scooped her up and put her back down on the bed.
“Let go of me!” She tried to wriggle free.
“If you stay still, I’ll tell you what happened.”
“I want to see. I want to see my face.” She looked down at the body that she could now see wasn’t hers.
“You can’t go anywhere in your condition. So why don’t you stay here and rest, and I’ll tell you what happened. Then I’ll fetch you a mirror.”
She looked into his deep purple eyes and saw his determination. She knew he was right—she was in no shape to go anywhere. She nodded.
“I was on personal business, and I got a call from a client for a job. The job was simple enough that I thought I’d make quick money. All I had to do—in my cat form—was project an image of Zach Flynn to a dimension the client requested. That was it. I was only the messenger.”
She nodded. “Do you know the client? Is he from Xiilok?”
“I can’t tell you that. But what I can tell you is that when I stepped out from the woods up the hill to capture the image of Zach Flynn, I saw you. I meant you in this body!”
Elanora looked at her hands and looked down her body. “This is the girl who was with Mya and Zach! This is her body!”
Dex nodded. “Well, I don’t know what happened before that or how you got into this form. But when I saw you on that hill, in that woman’s form, I froze. I didn’t know what to do. The next thing I knew, you were on fire and screaming. So I dropped what I was doing and came to rescue you.”
She held his arm and pulled his sleeve up. The skin on his arm had healed, but the faint burn marks were still there. “You got burned as well. You must have run into the fire to get me.” A tear ran down her face. Dex wiped it away with his thumb.
“That’s okay. I’ve been through worse. The deity’s fire wasn’t meant for me, so it couldn’t have killed me anyway.”
Elanora ground her teeth. “That deity, Mya. That bitch burned me!”
He shrugged. “Because you don’t remember how you got into this body, I guess you took the body of other the other woman unintentionally. Maybe because you aren’t a pure lynx. In principle, if you intentionally take another body, the deity’s fire should have killed you.”
She scrambled off the bed. “I’ve got to take back my body. I’ll burn that little deity into ashes.”
Dex pulled her back. “You can’t. The deity is protected by the power of her Goddess. You’re in the wrong here, and no god’s going to be on your side.”
“She burned me! How can I be on the wrong side? The wrong side of what?”
“One body, one soul. You pushed the other woman’s soul out of her body. That’s totally unacceptable.”
“By the god’s laws? Jungle laws? Or were-leopard’s laws? I’m sorry, but I have to laugh, Dex. You’re a mercenary. You kill for a living. On what multiversal scale does my little body swap compare to what you’ve done?”
Dex growled. “You don’t know what I’ve done, what I know, or what I can do. My patience is very limited. Now will you sit down, or do I have to tie you up?”
She bared her teeth. “Tie me up if you can.” She strode to the door and pushed it open. In front of her was an endless field of tall back grass and weeds. The trees were bare, and their branches reached upward like devil’s talons. Above was something that looked like a stormy night sky. But it was shaped like a dome, so she wasn’t really sure if it was the sky she was looking at.
She whirled around and saw that Dex had sunk into a comfortable chair. He rested his long legs on a nearby stool. He winked and raised an eyebrow as if waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t, he asked, “Need a map?”
“Where are we?”
“The underworld.”
She walked back into the room and looked at him. “Who are you, Dex?”
He smiled. “I am the underworld marshal.”
“A marshal? You spent so much time with our pack. Who did you want to catch in my leopard pack?”
“You said they weren’t your pack.”
“That’s beside the point…”
He smiled. “Indeed. Look, Elanora, I know you have a lot of questions that I can’t answer. But I can tell you this—the fugitives I’m trying to catch have nothing to do with your clan or your pack.”
She sat down on a chair and waited for more information. When nothing else came, she asked, “Is that all you’re going to tell me?”
He nodded. “In the multiverse, people get killed for pitiful pieces of information. So the less you know, the safer you are.”
She was exhausted. She would need more rest and time to digest the information in order to make a decision about the next step. So she walked toward the bed. “I can stay here one more night?”
“Stay as long as you like,” he said and stood.
“Where are you going?”
He smiled. “I’m not getting in bed with you. Especially when you’re in that body. Get some rest. I’ll be back in the morning.”
She talked to his back. “You said someone paid you to project the image of Zach Flynn to a dimension you don’t know. Was that part of a triangulation process?”
He turned and looked at her, the corner of his lips quirking up. He always had that look when he was intrigued, she thought.
“Indeed. You know about this process. I’m impressed.”
“Zach Flynn comes from Eudaiz. He had just communicated with them. I remember it now. I…I mean, this body of mine attacked him when he was talking to someone in Eudaiz. If you were projecting the image of Zach Flynn at the same time to whoever paid you, that person could have used your information to lure the person in Eudaiz to a location of his choice.”
Dex grinned. “Now I am very impressed. But before you ask, I don’t know who it was that my client wanted to capture or which dimension the person in Eudaiz was lured to. But when you were on fire, I dropped the whole process. I don’t know what happened afterward.”
“The person would be transferred back to the source dimension, which is where Zach Flynn is now.”
“Why are you interested in that person?”
“Zach Flynn is a councillor. Whoever he was talking to has to be of a high rank. That person will have the wrist unit I’m after.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. There you go about that wrist unit again. Look at yourself in the mirror now and tell me if it’s worth it!” He walked out and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter 21
Zach rushed toward Ciaran and turned him over. Blood was everywhere. He shook Ciaran’s shoulders. He wasn’t sure if he’d been hit at his eudqi point or not, but with the injuries he could see, he wasn’t sure Ciaran would make it to Eudaiz.
“Ciaran, open your eyes, goddammit. I shouldn’t have called you. Don’t you die on me.”