“Pretty much, yep,” Steffy grunted, wrestling with the straps of a shoulder harness. “Not that we can see it, but you’ve explained it to us before. It’s amazing how fast you can bring those bastards down, girl.”
“Which makes you this season’s M.V.P.” Cinder brushed his mate’s fingers away and helped her, despite the stubborn protests muttered beneath her breath in her native German.
With a start, Raine realized she understood every word Steffy said.
Since when did she understand German?
Cinder kissed Steffy’s short hair and turned to offer Raine a sorrowful look she couldn’t interpret at all. “Welcome back, by the way. Are you ready to go kill some bad guys?”
Raine winced. Oh yeah. What fun.
Chapter Seventeen
The next half hour went by so fast, Raine’s head spun. She spent most of it testing her prowess at willfully listening to the ocean roar of the Daemon Horde in her subconscious. She found she couldn’t spend more than a few seconds exposing herself to that channel without deafening herself to reason and sanity. More than once Emily had to shake her to get her attention. Luckily, everyone else was more accustomed to her behavior than Raine was herself and no one thought it strange to catch her staring off into space sometimes. In fact, they expected it of her, she discovered.
“So you’re a spy,” Steffy told her with a shrug. “You infiltrate the enemy camp. It’s not an easy job, obviously. But who cares if you go vacant-eyed and drool every now and then? You save a lot of lives doing what you do.”
Raine couldn’t argue with that kind of logic.
Emily took their group to an area she considered a likely location to find the gathering numbers of Daemons, based on some very sophisticated 3D maps and GPS devices each team member wore on their wrists. The Shikars might live apart from the humans but they kept close watch on trending technologies, even implementing some of the advancements—secretly of course—when opportunities arose. The Shikars never said humans were not an intelligent species, though it might sometimes be implied in their more arrogant moments. They weren’t going to turn their noses up at shiny new toys, no matter who manufactured them.
Once they were on the surface world, Raine was again hit with an overload of sight, taste, sound and smell. Her senses were so keen that the perceptions bordered on pain.
She touched on the Daemons’ collective consciousness, thinking to pinpoint their location and quickly end her jaunt to the surface, but something about her bonds with them didn’t feel quite normal—as if any of it was “normal”. Still, she felt hunted whenever she touched on their consciousness and couldn’t tolerate peeking in on their thoughts for very long. It unnerved her so much she began to feel ill.
Raine already wanted to get back home, back to Grimm’s arms, the only place where anything made sense anymore. She wondered where Grimm was and why it was taking him so long to join her.
Out here it was night once again, of course. She knew by now that Shikars couldn’t be in the sun and wondered if she could tolerate the sunlight. She didn’t know. Not knowing this fundamental fact made panic claw its way up from her stomach and into her throat.
She turned and was violently sick in a patch of grass.
Steffy held her head, making sure her hair was well out of the “blast zone”. “Scheiße, Raine, are you okay?”
Raine waved her away, trying to remember the last thing she’d eaten. She had absolutely no idea what it was or even when it was. Shouldn’t that be a priority—food? Especially after she’d been sick so many times since coming to in front of that fire in the hearth a few days ago. Her stomach did a few more somersaults before coming to rest a little unsteadily where it belonged. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then scrubbed her hand on a clean stretch of earth, feeling quite a bit better once she’d done that.
She rejoined the group, ignoring their concerned glances.
“There are a couple dozen of ’em,” Raine said, voice only imperceptibly hoarse after her inelegant ordeal.
Obsidian moved closer to her. When he did, their bond grew denser in the air, and Raine felt immediately stronger for it. The sensory overload she’d been experiencing was infinitely more bearable. Her stomach settled and she was better able to focus on the voices in her head without feeling the side effects. With Obsidian’s closer proximity, the Horde chatter became less like noise and more like the language it was. It was much like picking up a broadcast station in her head with a sudden crystal-clear frequency.
Raine listened. “They’re waiting for something,” she mused, watching the cords pulse between her and her “offspring”. She was especially curious about the one between her and the warrior at her side.
With each pulse she felt a current surge through her entire form. But it was much stronger between her and Obsidian—it didn’t take long for her to reason why. Sid was feeding her his own energy. What’s more, he was doing it knowingly and willingly. That was the function of their connection, but Raine had always been the one to provide the energy to others. She had never been the recipient.
It was unsettling.
Raine edged away from him. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea that he was so willing to bolster her strength with his own—how could she be certain he wasn’t doing it because of some compulsion she’d unwittingly laid upon him? She must be careful.
Raine immediately felt weaker, but she knew that moving away from Sid was the morally correct decision.
She didn’t want to be a psychic leech, but if she kept taking energy from Obsidian, that’s exactly what she would turn out to be. It made her cringe with shame, until Cady sidled up next to her—as if the woman was somehow connected to her too—and shoved Raine back toward Obsidian. Raine’s flagging strength righted itself once more and she felt better with each passing second she was in close proximity to him.
Cady and Sid both seemed okay with this arrangement. Just this once, Raine would give in, but only because they faced a danger she wasn’t certain she was quite ready to face.
“You said they were waiting. What do you mean they’re waiting?” Cady asked with a scowl.
“They aren’t coming out to fight until they get a sign.” Raine shrugged.
“A sign? What the fuck?” Cady cocked her hip and rested the butt of her G36K on her hip, holding the AG36 grenade launcher’s pistol grip like a boss.
“I’m just the messenger, Cady. Don’t get pissed at me.” Raine shrugged, focusing on the matter at hand, not to be intimidated by the volatile woman’s battle stance. “They’re planning something, but whatever it is they’re hiding it from me pretty well.”
Cady fumed. “They don’t make plans, Raine,” she snapped. “That was your thing, so what’s going on? How can they hide anything from you? I thought you were like peas in a pod—I’m sorry,” she hastened to add when she saw Raine’s crestfallen features. “I know you have no control over the specifics of your relationship with those mongrels but c’mon, can’t you just possess one of them and bring them over here so we can torture the information we need out of it?”
“Cady, scheiße!” Steffy exclaimed. “Don’t mind anything she says, Raine, her panties are perpetually wadded up her ass.”
Raine smiled weakly but Cady was right. The Daemons shouldn’t be planning anything complicated without her at the helm and they definitely shouldn’t be able to hide such plans from her—she could read their thoughts, after all.
“Usually just having you around lures them out. Have you tried calling to them?” Emily disturbed her brooding thoughts and Raine nodded that, yes, she had tried, of course she had. “Shouldn’t they come when you call?”
Raine gave her a helpless shrug. “For all intents and purposes, I’m new to this, sorry.”
Steffy stepped behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Maybe try to sing? It’s always worked in a pinch before.”
Raine frowned at her.
“Yes, please, I’d like to hear a song,” Sid
agreed in a wistful voice that Raine didn’t like at all—it cautioned her again to be wary of her influence over him.
She darted a look at Cady, who nodded her head imperceptibly. Raine didn’t know how to interpret it.
“There is no better melody than your voice given over to song.” This from Edge, the first words he’d said tonight. “It’s why Grimm called you his Nightingale—”
“Hey.” Emily jabbed him sharply in the ribs with her elbow. “Everyone, focus on the task at hand, please.”
“You still have a problem with me devoting time to music, Emily?” Raine asked, stunned.
Emily frowned as if puzzled. “No, of course not. Sing if you want, I don’t care.”
Raine bristled that Emily never failed to remind her how little she thought of her musical gifts. In their human lives Emily had seen no value in Raine pursuing a musical career—she had worried that it would never sustain her financially. And having to count pennies all the time had made Emily see music as a waste of time and instruments as a waste of money they couldn’t afford. It had long been a bitter argument between them.
Just to spite her sibling, Raine opened her mouth and broke into song.
Eyes bright with red light
Teeth, cries
See me shine
I feel your hunger
Come, draw near
I’m right here
Feel this
Light (hunger…)
Free this
Life (rage…)
The lyrics came from out of nowhere. The tune was one she made up on the fly, the rhythm ad libitum—in free time. At first she began the song slowly and mournfully, but when Steffy picked up the chorus with her, the tempo changed and got faster. It was a cadenza, constantly re-forming itself, until it was perfect and forceful. Larger than she had expected. It became a drumming anthem of war.
When she repeated the refrain, the rising baritone of the Horde’s growling mantra surged through her. Hunger and rage accompanied the words light and life in the song. It was a booming inside her head the first time she sang the song, but on the second round it was loud enough for all of them to hear and dread filled the night.
Children of blight
Red eyes bright
My mind will unwind
And then you’ll be
Freed through me
I’m the key
Feel this
Light (hunger…hunger)
Free this
Life (rage…rage)
Raine’s voice shook the earth. It seemed to come from worlds away, as if it had been recorded and run through several different digital effects, laid out over numerous tracks and then compressed back into one single layer. It stunned her that she could achieve a sound so…
Stunning is the word you are searching for.
Grimm’s voice in her ear was so real that Raine whipped her head about, looking for him, fully expecting to see him beside her.
You sound stunning, Nightingale.
But Grimm wasn’t there with her, and without him at her side she could never feel complete. Raine wondered where he was, what had come up that was so important he had to miss this.
“I can feel them now.” Obsidian’s words brought Raine’s attention back from wandering, and she realized that, yes, the Daemons were indeed easier to sense, because they were closer. They were drawn to her voice like sharks to bloodied waters.
“Me too.” A ball of flame lit up Cady’s whole hand. With her other, she hefted her machine gun. “C’mon, you stinking fuckwits, taste my pain.”
“Simmer down, Cady.” Obsidian looked at his wife fondly. “Do not be too cocky, yeah?”
“Wait.” She scowled. “Shit. Unless my senses have failed me,” Cady darted a glance at him, one that spoke volumes in some private language only they shared, then looked at Raine. “It feels like there are more than you said, Gigantor. And they’re not just weak stragglers either.” She turned again to her mate. “These should only be stragglers, Sid, right? The meat of their army was decimated a week ago—hundreds of thousands, maybe a million of them. Raine, you assured us nearly every Daemon was gathered there—but now there are more. Why?”
Raine gave a start. “I-I don’t know.”
Wait a minute.
They had killed hundreds of thousands of Daemons.
What the eff—was that even possible?
She did not remember that.
Her entire body shied away from the specifics of that event—whatever had happened, she wasn’t ready to know about it. The fight had wiped her memory clean, that much was obvious. She closed her eyes and took a short, shallow breath, staving off a dark, terrifying specter that threatened to twist her insides to knots.
It was probably best that she not recall that now anyway, not when the enemy was so near. This excuse was as good as any other to keep her from falling into the deep well of memory. She held to it.
Raine focused wholeheartedly on the moment at hand, clinging desperately to the frayed seams of her present reality. She reached out with her mind and gladly sought the very real connections she had with the Daemons. When she touched the ties that bound them together, a surge of energy filled her. Old remnants of her own stolen life force flooded through her tissues, setting her nerves on fire, and she welcomed it, grateful that it burned away the sick dread blanketing her soul.
The threads shimmered through the air and Raine knew that while she might be able to pull on them, sever them one by one, it was no guarantee that the Daemons would die if they weren’t completely obliterated down to the last cell of their putrid forms. For once, Raine wasn’t certain she wanted those threads severed—they were a distraction from the pain that awaited her in the lull between battles, a pain that might only just be beginning.
Her heart fluttered in her chest, bringing to mind a bird trapped in a cage.
What the hell could be more terrible than the blight of the Horde—so terrible that Raine was even now considering turning tail and running back home? She looked down at her hands. They were shaking.
“Raine.” Obsidian’s connection pulsed with his concern. “What is it?”
Sid had sensed Raine’s distress. He was far too observant.
Geez Louise. Raine was faint. The world spun around her but she didn’t spin with it—she felt alienated from it all. Cut off from nature like the freak she was. “It’s nothing.” The lie left her lips so easily.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
The Daemons had arrived. There were dozens of them and they were indeed strong, just as Cady feared.
But…the Daemons weren’t alone.
Suddenly Raine knew why the beasts had been able to plan and plot, why there were more than there should be and why they were stronger than they should be.
The Daemons had been waiting not for something, but for someone. And the information Raine had gleaned from their shared minds about their desire to fight in front of an audience of humans had been…a ruse. The beasts had never had any intention of attacking the city at all.
She had been tricked.
Indeed they had all fallen into this trap—because Raine’s friends had put too much faith in her skills as a spy. She hadn’t remembered enough of herself yet to be trusted with this much responsibility so soon. They all should have suspected something was amiss. The universal truth was that these monsters were always daft without a leader…
Lord Daemon had told her—whether you come willingly or not. And she’d played right into his hands.
The blond-haired devil himself stepped into the night with a smile that Raine might have believed was apologetic…if she were a total idiot. From behind him came a surge of fecund wind followed by a slither of darkness as his creatures came into view.
These beasts moved differently from those who had followed Raine in the past. These golems were in thrall to Lord Daemon, who was the true master of their kind. He commanded them as no other ever could, imparting them with gifts few living souls could r
ecall. They exhibited some such talents now, completely silent, as they passed over the bracken of the field, shifting no piece of ground, no bit of Earth.
Raine remembered with a start something she had learned in another incarnation, before this most recent loss of memory.
Lord Daemon’s Caste was power over Earth. No other Shikar before him had been born with that Caste trait.
Once he had been called Lord of the Earth, as his water-wielding twin, Tryton, was called Lord of the Deep.
It appeared that Daemon, wielding Earth, imparted a bit of stealth to his creatures through his Caste traits. If such a thing were possible, it would make the Horde more deadly and far more difficult to track. But he had chosen to use creatures that were crafted from Raine’s life force, which explained the presence of the invisible cords that ran between them. He had done so to lure Raine out into the open. If he had fashioned his own creatures from scratch, the Shikars would find themselves in much more dire circumstances.
Suddenly Raine realized just how perfectly honed the Shikars were for this war. Their Castes were tailored in a way human technology could never match, each warrior gifted with specialized weapons to wield against this baleful foe. When grouped as a team, each Caste was represented and the teams were nigh unstoppable together. It was an awesome example of nature defending itself against an imbalance that needed to be set right.
Daemon nodded to her, as if they shared a secret. No one else appeared to see him and he slipped through the folds of darkness in just such a way that for a moment, she could have argued perhaps her own eyes were tricking her.
But they weren’t.
He was really there. The others just failed to see him because he didn’t want them to see him.
The inky darkness of his disciples moved with increased speed and Raine’s companions darted forward to intercept them.
She decided to end it quickly after all, resolutely gripping the cords that bound them and yanking them all out of her own chest at once.
The cords came free with a tearing noise only she could hear and Raine pitched forward. It felt like she’d ripped her own heart out. Gray gauze fell over her vision, she went deaf and the world spun out beneath her feet.
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