Refuge

by Karen Lynch

  I didn’t say much on the walk back to the stronghold, and Nikolas seemed content to leave me to my thoughts. I felt different, changed somehow from the experience with my Mori. I had never really thought of my Mori as a sentient being with thoughts and emotions, but after today, I could never think of it as the beast again, either. I knew it was still a demon with demon urges, but it was also a part of me.

  “Get some lunch and rest for a bit,” Nikolas said as he opened the door for me and I entered the main hall ahead of him. “We’ll meet up again at two.”

  “Okay.”

  “Here. This is to replace the knife you lost.” He unclipped the sheath on his hip and passed it to me. I pulled the knife free and saw that it looked identical to the last one he’d given me.

  I slipped it in the pocket of my hoodie, touched by the gift.

  “You did great today.”

  “Thanks,” I turned away before he could see me flush with pleasure at the unexpected praise.

  Shouting and pounding feet interrupted us, and we both turned as Mark came tearing around a corner. “Shut the door! Shut the door before they get out!”

  “What the – ?” I uttered before a small white object whipped past Mark’s head. Nikolas slammed the door shut before the creature reached us, and it veered away sharply to spiral upward toward the massive chandelier hanging from the arched ceiling.

  “What is it?” I asked as I tried to follow the creature with my eyes.

  “Goddamn kark eggs hatched while we were . . . ” Mark’s voice was drowned out by squeaks and flapping wings, and my eyes went wide as hundreds of the tiny creatures zoomed around the corner and headed straight for us.

  Chapter 9

  NIKOLAS REACHED FOR me and drew me behind him. As soon as the karks saw that there was no way out, they swerved away from us and began to zoom frantically around the hall, looking for another means of escape. By the time Sahir, Jordan, and Olivia showed up, followed by Terrence and Josh, there were karks everywhere. The small white bodies careened up the large curved staircase, through open doorways and down every hallway, swerving around people with amazing agility and speed.

  “Don’t hurt them!” yelled Sahir, grabbing Josh’s arm to stop him from swiping at the creatures with a long thin sword. Sahir need not have worried. The karks were so tiny and fast that they were almost impossible to hit.

  “Do you realize how long it takes to breed karks?” Sahir ducked as one of the creatures shot toward him. “We can’t kill them.”

  “What the hell are we supposed to do with them?” Josh yelled back.

  “We have to round them up somehow.”

  I looked at the mass of white bodies whipping around us and shook my head. I couldn’t see how on earth anyone was going to catch these things. Pulling away from Nikolas, I ran over to Sahir. “How do you catch them?”

  “Normally you’d use a spray made from scarab demon pheromone. Karks can’t resist it. Unfortunately, this batch was not supposed to hatch yet and I didn’t see a bottle of spray in the crates.”

  I put a hand over my head when a Kark flew close enough to hook my hair with its tiny clawed wings. “So, what do we do about them?”

  Sahir studied the situation. “I have a sedative that might help slow them down. I’ll go get it, and you try to keep these people from killing them.”

  “Me? How am I supposed to stop them?” I asked, but Sahir was already running away.

  Someone squealed, and I whirled around to see Olivia batting at two Karks that were zipping around her head while Jordan was bent over, holding her sides and laughing. Mark, Terrence, and Josh were running around the hall chasing after the creatures as a dozen warriors burst into the hall and stopped short at the pandemonium before them. I saw Chris among them, and his eyebrows shot up when he spotted me in the middle of the hall. I shook my head to let him know this one was not my doing.

  “What in God’s name is going on here?” Tristan bellowed, and I looked up to see him on the second floor landing with Celine. Celine looked down on me with a sneer on her beautiful face as if I was somehow responsible for the whole thing. Why the hell did everyone assume I had something to do with this?

  Tristan started down the stairs with Celine on his heels, and twice they had to stop as Karks fluttered around them like large white moths. I couldn’t contain my smirk as I watched Celine swipe at them.

  “Who is responsible for this?” Tristan demanded in a commanding voice that carried through the main hall. “Where is Sahir?”

  “He went to get some kind of sedative to knock them out,” I told him when no one else answered.

  Tristan stared in displeasure at the scene before him. “How did this happen?”

  “Ask them.” I pointed at the other trainees. “I was with Nikolas.”

  Behind Tristan, Celine’s eyes narrowed on me, but she said nothing. Her hand went to her pocket, and for a few seconds I half expected her to pull out a knife and come after me with it.

  “It was an accident,” Jordan said. “We laid all the eggs out after breakfast and turned them as Sahir instructed. We just went back to turn them again and they were all hatched.”

  Shaking his head, Tristan strode into the center of the chaos. “I want these things caged before they make an even bigger mess.” To punctuate his words, a splatter of white landed in Celine’s straight black hair, and the female warrior shrieked as if it was acid instead of poop. I almost laughed before I got a whiff of the kark dung. I immediately slapped a hand over my mouth and nose at the noxious odor that was a mix of rotten eggs and dead skunk. If we didn’t round the karks up soon, this place would reek of it for a month.

  My first thought was to use my power to calm the karks, but common sense told me there was no way I could handle this many at once. Still, it might work on some of them and that was better than nothing. At least they weren’t demons, so I could not hurt them or cause them to go nuts.

  Opening my power, I let it saturate the air around me. After a few minutes, I noticed the karks closest to me were moving slower than the rest before they began to flutter down drunkenly to perch on the stair banister, the chandelier, or any surface nearby. I walked over and picked up one to get a closer look at it. Its snow white fur was downy soft, and I stroked it with one finger as I studied the small bat-like ears and teeth and soft white leathery wings that looked almost fragile enough to tear.

  “They must be getting tired,” Mark said. “Should we try to catch them now?”

  Glancing up, I caught knowing looks from Nikolas and Tristan. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice. “Go find some crates or boxes or whatever you can to put them in,” Tristan told Mark and Josh, who immediately ran off to do as ordered.

  Nikolas came over to stand by me and spoke so no one else could hear him. “Are you doing this?”

  “Yes, but I’m not sure how long it will work on them. I hope Sahir gets here soon.”

  Tristan walked up to us, followed by Celine who was still trying to get the sticky kark dung out of her hair. “Someone needs to be reprimanded for this disaster.” I ignored her pointed glares in my direction. No matter how much she disliked me, there was no way she could blame this mess on me.

  “Here, we can put some in these.” Michael ran into the hall carrying two of the mesh equipment bags from the training rooms. He spotted Tristan and headed for us. “Will these do?”

  “Good idea,” I told him as he opened one of the bags and I laid the kark inside. “Come on,” I called to the other trainees. “Help us out here.”

  With the help of Olivia, Jordan, and Terrance we managed to round up at least three dozen karks that were close enough to reach, but there were still over two hundred of them whipping around the room with no signs of slowing down. To make matters worse, more of the creatures decided they had to go potty, and soon we were all dodging their little stink bombs like we were in an eighties arcade game. If my nose hadn’t been burning from the stench, I probably would have burst out l
aughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

  “Watch where you’re going,” Celine snapped when I backed into her to avoid getting hit by a white glob of poo. Unfortunately, Michael chose that same moment to slip on the stuff and come barreling into us, sending the three of us tumbling to the hard marble floor. Lucky for me, Celine broke my fall, but she was not as happy about that as I was, and I was pretty sure the elbow she jabbed sharply in my ribs was not by accident. I grunted and rolled off her and right onto poor Michael, who let out a moan when the back of my head butted his nose.

  “Ah hell,” I muttered when I sat up and saw the white streaks on my jeans. My eyes watered at the smell. It was going to take all day to get rid of this stench, and my clothes were ruined for sure. I spotted a small streak of yellow on my sleeve and hoped it was not urine. I rolled my eyes. Like a little spot of pee would make a difference now.

  “Need a hand up?” Chris’s voice quivered with amusement, and I scowled up at him, which only made him burst out laughing. Tristan joined in, and I glared at both of them before they each grabbed an arm and pulled me to my feet.

  “Ugh!” I groaned when I looked down at myself. I really didn’t want to know what my hair looked like right now.

  Nikolas helped Celine up, and she clung to his arm. How was it possible for her to be even filthier than me and still look ridiculously gorgeous?

  “If anyone needs me, I’ll be soaking in my tub for the next two hours,” Celine declared, and I couldn’t help but notice the meaningful look she gave Nikolas. I couldn’t see his face, but I heard his soft chuckle at her blatant invitation. Annoyance stiffened my limbs, and I stalked away from them. We were covered in poop with no idea how we were going to bag the two hundred or so karks whipping around, and those two were flirting with each other like they were at a cocktail party.

  The door opened and Sahir slipped inside with a respirator mask hanging from his neck and carrying a foot-long metal canister with a rubber hose attached. On the other end of the hose was a spray nozzle. “Sorry it took so long. I had to dilute the sedative and transfer it to a spray canister so it will reach them.” He lifted the nozzle and sprayed a couple of karks as they flew by him. At first it appeared to have no effect on them, but after a minute or so they fluttered to the floor.

  I immediately picked them up to make sure they were still alive, and I smiled at Sahir when I felt their strong heartbeats. “It worked.”

  He turned to Tristan. “I diluted this, but it still might knock people out if they breathe too much of it. We should clear the hall before I spray more of it.”

  Tristan nodded and ordered everyone to head to the common areas until Sahir said it was safe to come out. All I wanted was to find the nearest shower and scrub myself clean, but as soon as Sahir knocked out all the karks, we’d be needed to bag them before they woke up again. Dutifully, I trailed behind the others instead.

  “Ouch!” I jerked my head to one side when a kark flew at my face and nicked my ear with its sharp little teeth. I put my hand to my ear and frowned when my fingers came away red. “The little bugger bit me!”

  “It must have scratched you by accident. Karks don’t bite people,” Sahir said, fitting his mask over his mouth and nose as he waited for everyone to clear out.

  Needles of pain stung my forearm, and I gasped at the white creature latched onto my sleeve, its pointed teeth digging into my skin. I let out a yelp and grabbed the little body to yank it from my arm. It squeaked and twisted, frantically trying to break free from my hand. “What is up with this thing?”

  No sooner had the words left my mouth when another kark flew into my chest. I batted it away, but it did a one eighty and came at me again. I snatched it up in my other hand, and it went nuts like the first one. My first thought was that these things really were demons and no one had bothered to tell me. Why else would they be acting so bizarre around me? But if that was the case, my power would have freaked them out a few minutes ago instead of putting them to sleep.

  “Ow! What the hell?” I yelled as, from out of nowhere, five or six karks dive-bombed me, and I had to throw up my arms to protect my head. “Sahir, will you spray these things before they try to eat me.”

  “I told you, karks don’t – ” Sahir broke off when dozens of the creatures flew at me from every direction like a swarm of angry hornets. I cried out and tried to run for cover, but I could not see past the mass of white bodies around me. Over the squeaking and flapping wings, I heard Sahir yelling, but I was too busy fending off his harmless karks to pay much attention to what he was saying.

  A few seconds later, something large collided with me and I flew backward. Instead of hitting the floor, I found myself circled by a pair of arms and pulled against a hard body, bracing me from the impact. My rescuer and I rolled over once, ending with me on the floor and his body covering mine. I didn’t need the flutter in my head to tell me who was holding me tight against him and shielding my body from attack with his own. I suddenly found it hard to breathe, and to my dismay I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the fall.

  “I don’t give a damn. Just do it,” Nikolas barked at someone, and I felt the angry rumble deep in his chest. He lowered his head, and his warm breath fanned my cheek. “Cover your mouth and nose. Sahir is going to spray around us.”

  I pressed my face into the crook of his shoulder, acutely aware of his body against mine and the fact that I had never been this close to a man before. Unless you counted that time I healed Roland, but I didn’t think holding a half-crazed werewolf fell into the same category.

  “There are too many of them,” Sahir said a minute later in a muffled voice.

  “Keep spraying us,” Nikolas ordered.

  “I can’t. It’ll poison you two if I spray more around you.” I heard Sahir move away. “I’ll do what I can to reduce their numbers. What the hell is wrong with them? Why are they only going after her?”

  “I don’t know.” Nikolas shifted his weight and surprised me by leaning in and sniffing at my hair first and then my hoodie. How he expected to smell anything over the stench was beyond me. “Something smells off here.”

  I could not contain my snort. “You think?”

  Instead of smiling like I expected him to, he reached down and grabbed the bottom of my hoodie. “What are you doing?” I demanded in a panic when he started to lift it up.

  “I think something on your clothes is making the karks behave like this,” he explained without stopping. “I can detect something that doesn’t smell like you or their droppings.”

  He knows my scent? That revelation shocked me so much I forgot to protest further, and Nikolas used that opportunity to quickly yank the hoodie over my head and fling it away from us. Despite his body heat, I shivered as cold from the marble floor seeped through the back of my T-shirt. A few karks used the opportunity to squeeze beneath him and latch onto my hoodie, but as soon as the piece of clothing flew away, they followed it.

  “Jesus, look at that.” Buried beneath Nikolas, I couldn’t see what Sahir was referring to, but his tone sent another chill through me. “They’re still trying to get to her. Whatever it is, it has to be on her T-shirt, too.”

  “I know.” Nikolas lifted his head again, and his eyes were dark and apologetic when they met mine. “Sara – ”

  “No way! Forget it.” There was no way in hell I was stripping in front of him and everyone else. “We can make a run for it.”

  “There are too many of them. As soon as I get off you, they’ll attack you.”

  “I don’t care. I am not taking off my clothes.” The very thought of it made my stomach clench.

  Nikolas sighed roughly. “I’m sorry but this is no time for modesty. It’s just your shirt, and I’ll cover you.”

  That’s supposed to make me feel better? My throat was dry, and I averted my eyes from his as my trembling hands pushed between us to reach the hem of my T-shirt. Why did this shit keep happening to me?

  “Stand back, boys. Time for t
he girls to show you how it’s done,” Jordan yelled above the racket. “Let her rip, Liv.”

  I barely had time to wonder what the girls were up to before Nikolas and I were hit with a blast of cold water that soaked the two of us within seconds. Coughing, I turned my face into his chest to keep from drowning in the onslaught. A minute later, a deep rumbling started in his chest and I pulled away when I realized he was laughing.

  “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” I grumbled, still upset about how close I’d come to stripping in front of him and everyone else.

  “Immensely.” He raised his head and looked around, then rolled off me and to his feet in one easy movement. Before I had time to move, he reached down and pulled me up to stand beside him.

  All around us, white bodies littered the floor and stairs while the few karks still moving desperately tried to evade the powerful jet of water from the fire hose Jordan was holding. Jordan wore a devilish smile as she swung the hose back on us for several seconds before going back to taking down anything with wings.

  “Hey!” I sputtered as water ran off me in rivulets. I pushed wet hair from my face to shoot her a dirty look.

  “Sorry, had to make sure I didn’t miss any of it,” she said, but her smirk belied her apology. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”

  She was right; there wasn’t a single kark interested in me anymore. I looked around for my hoodie and spotted a splash of blue beneath a pile of unmoving bodies. Sahir must have dosed them with his sedative.

  “I think that’s enough, Jordan.” Tristan wore a serious expression as he surveyed the mess in the main hall. He waited for Jordan to shut off the hose then he started toward us, followed by Chris and the other warriors. “Are you two okay?” he asked me and Nikolas. I nodded, and he turned to Sahir who was the resident creature expert. “Sahir, what could have caused this?”