“I can handle myself, Ty.” Had something happened during my transformation to make me suddenly too weak to take care of myself?
“That’s not the problem, Darian. I know you can handle yourself. But even you need backup every once in a while. That’s where I come in.”
I didn’t answer, not wanting to fight with my boyfriend in front of my “visitor.” As we walked out into the back alley, I heard the Lyhtan’s grating breath before I actually saw it. Him. That was what Levi had called him anyway. With their androgynous, insectlike bodies, I still don’t know how anyone could tell their gender. I approached cautiously. I’m not stupid. Regardless of having the upper hand, I didn’t feel like I did. Lyhtans are deadly. They fight amongst themselves as much as they harry their enemies. Violence is their cup of tea, and it doesn’t matter who serves it up.
When the Lyhtan laid eyes on Tyler, he took a defensive stance. Green-tinged drool leaked from his mouth, and he bared his teeth. A low hiss issued from between the sharp points. “I asked for the marked one. Not you, Jinn,” he said in his many voices, which melded into a single ominous chorus. “You have no business here.”
Marked one. Didn’t realize I had an actual title. “His business is my business. Don’t worry your pretty little head about Ty.” Pretty. Ha. “What’s your name, Lyhtan?” I had little hope he’d supply it. They rarely do. But then again, even sometimes I am surprised.
“I am called Chianshank.”
Sounded a lot like a sneeze the way he pronounced it. Chi-an with a quick shahnk. I wanted to follow up with a Bless you. No wonder they didn’t often supply their names. How in the hell was I going to remember that one?
“Well, Chian,” I said, going for something a little less formal, “what do you want?”
“I bring a warning.” His breath came foul and loud, echoing in the alley. “And you’d best heed it.”
His voice, like so many tones layered together, reminded me of less than happy times. The threat of becoming a sacrifice choking every ounce of air from my lungs as I lay helpless on a slab of moss-covered stone, impending death on the wind. I thought of my soul, screaming for release from torturous love and betrayal. I envisioned blood-so much blood streaming from twin slashes on my wrists.
Thank whatever gods are out there, I’m no delicate flower. I pushed the unpleasant memories away and widened my stance, caressing the dagger hilt at my thigh. It wouldn’t kill the bastard, but it would wound him enough to get him out of my hair if his intentions were less than honorable. “Why warn me? The last time I met up with your kind, saving my skin was low on the Lyhtan to-do list.”
“Neither Shaede nor Lyhtan be,” he crooned. Sheets of gooseflesh rose over my skin. “You are Other. Dangerous to some, a savior to others. And I’ve been instructed to warn you.”
From around the corner, a door slammed. Chianshank flinched, crouching low. A warning grumble bubbled from his thin lips. His taloned fingers flexed, and he cast a furtive glance to either side. “Come close, creature. I will deliver my message to your ears alone.”
Creature, huh? If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black. “I’ll come a little closer on your word that you won’t attack.”
“On my word,” the Lyhtan seethed.
Tyler snorted in protest behind me, and I held up a hand to silence whatever argument was about to spill from his lips. Taking a step toward the Lyhtan messenger and then another, I wondered at my own state of mind. The smell of Lyhtan that I’d thought of as especially foul didn’t offend my nostrils the way it once had. To my new senses, the Lyhtan smelled of strong musk, pine, and wilting lavender. Heady, though not exactly pleasant.
As I moved within killing distance of the segmented body of my would-be enemy, he straightened from his battle stance just a little-enough to meet me eye to eye. I stared into the amber orbs, beady black pupils fixed on my face. Suppressing a shudder, I inclined my head toward the Lyhtan’s slobbering, sharp-toothed mouth. I sensed Tyler stiffen behind me, his anxiety pulsing in soft invisible waves at my back. “Speak your piece, Lyhtan,” I murmured. “And then get the hell out of my space.”
Chian’s face passed close to my cheek-so close I felt a whisper of slimy contact from his glistening mouth. He took a breath of me deep into his lungs before looking me in the eye, and his tongue flicked out, licking his lips as if in anticipation of a lover’s kiss. I held perfectly still and forbade my body to react. I forced my lungs to expand and contract at a normal rhythm. Tyler’s pulse quickened behind me, thrumming double time to the seconds that ticked in my soul.
I waited.
“You will be the instrument of destruction. Creature of nothing and everything-he is coming for you. You must seek out-”
A swooshing sound interrupted his ominous speech. The Lyhtan jerked, then stood erect. His amber eyes rolled back in his head, which lolled on his sharp, hunching shoulders. A shimmering wave, like sunlight on water, shivered across his skin. He jerked again, and turned to the side. The long shaft of an arrow poked out from the back of his head, which seemed to glow hot and somehow cold all at once.
I stumbled and fell back into Ty’s waiting arms, which pulled me farther away toward cover. Chianshank pitched forward, and the arrow’s shaft glowed blindingly bright, encompassing his body in a brilliant luster that forced me to avert my gaze. His long, lanky body crumpled to the pavement, sizzling and curling in on itself until there was nothing left but a greenish pool of steaming goo.
Before I could reach for my dagger, Tyler spun me around and slammed me against a brick wall. He pressed me hard against the unyielding surface, my face smashed against his chest. His arms spread wide as his palms pressed against the wall behind me. Another arrow cleaved the air, singing in the night, and stuck in the brick inches from my head. The tip burned crimson, eating away at the hard brick and turning it to sand. Its grip lost, the arrow dropped to the pavement with a hollow echo beside my boot and disintegrated into nothing but ash.
I did not have time for this shit.
Chapter 5
I don’t know how he did it, but Tyler kept me pinned to that damned wall. The cool chill of his personal brand of magic snaked over my skin, holding me in a grip that refused to let me leave my corporeal form. “Ty, let me go!” My muffled command lost some of its impact in his shirt. “Goddamn it! Let. Me. Go!”
A third arrow zinged toward my head, and Tyler moved, damned fast I might add, flinging me to the ground. Like the second arrow, this one stuck in the brick, burning the masonry to grains of spilling sand. Tyler spread his arms wide, his palms tracing the air above me, and a dome of tangible energy pinned me to the pavement. I guess I should’ve been glad I wasn’t lying facedown in a puddle, but close enough.
“Stay.” The one word came harshly through Tyler’s lips, making me wonder just where the hell he thought I’d be going, trapped as I was.
The air became saturated with magic, tugging at my senses and settling against my skin like the caress of a thousand downy feathers. Without a backward glance, Ty evaporated from where he stood. Just-poof!-and he was gone. His magic seemed to dissipate as well, crackling in the air like tiny sparks in his wake. Too bad his leaving hadn’t released me from my invisible prison. I tried to push myself to at least a sitting position, but that attempt proved futile. The tight dome of energy held me down nice and cozy against the cold, wet, trash-strewn pavement. How completely charming.
The cold soaked through my black nylon pants, right into my bones. I hate the cold-hate hate it. But could you imagine me walking the beaches of Florida, head to toe in black-combat boots, long-sleeved Under Armour and all? Me neither. Tyler hadn’t even left me enough room in my little prison to maneuver the long tails of my duster beneath me. Sharp pieces of asphalt-covered rock jabbed into the palms of my hands and knees. I looked like a replica of a tarantula-the kind with a bubble of clear resin poured over it. If Tyler showed back up in one piece, I was going to take great pleasure in showing him how much I appreciated his gentle care of the woman he loved.