Creeping Beauty, page 13
I felt my power calling to me, the hunger and rage just waiting to be unleashed. But they were held down just like me, buried and suppressed by the magically reinforced manacle around my wrist.
My vision started to blacken and I writhed and twisted in a move that should have broken my spine, managing to slip free somehow. Real life fights were nothing like the movies. Everything happened faster than thought.
I stood, feeling like I was about to faint from the lack of air, but a white-hot flare of pain brought me back to waking. The hunter’s sword was buried in my gut. I held the blade with my hands, preventing it from slashing upward.
“Accept your fate, abomination,” he grunted, not quite able to get the leverage he needed.
“Fuck you,” I growled, wheezing. I could feel Tommy coming. But he was too far away.
I jerked backward, off the sword. It widened the hole in my gut, but I kept him from slicing upward and cutting me in half.
Blood pattered across the fallen leaves where I stood, painting pretty patterns across the yellow and orange as I weakened. I was right, the magic in their blades did do more damage. It slowed my healing.
His magic lifted around me, draining me as fast as the wound. I howled. I was dying. Finally.
But I didn’t want to go. Barrett and Toby would no longer know me. I was…this now. And Cloud….
“Please,” I whispered. Brutus smiled.
The cold voice in my mind whispered. Not yet. Mine. A black rabbit ran on smoky feet down from the clouds, between the tree branches.
It swirled into an amorphous humanoid shape. It coalesced into a man, about my height, grayish skin, piercing ice-blue eyes and black hair swept with silver at the temples. He was urbane and handsome in a black suit, and his face was calm, despite the anger I had felt a moment before.
Brutus turned toward him as I held my hands to my oozing gut wound. His deep voice trembled. “By all the Gods.”
The man simply smiled and reached out to touch his cheek.
The towering hunter crumpled. His body aged as if fell, until he resembled a wizened old man.
As it should be.
I fell to my knees. That voice….
Death stepped toward me, smiling a kindly smile. You see me now?
I opened my mouth to reply, but Kwan and Tommy burst into the clearing.
Tommy ignored everything else and rushed to my side, Tommy-style. But Kwan stared at my bleeding wound, what was left of Brutus and then at his killer.
“Tess,” he said in that same calm voice I’d always known. “Did you kill the hunter?”
I shook my head, my vision dark at the edges. “No.” I couldn’t keep my eyes from drifting to the one who had, fascination and terror warring with each other in my mind. The voice in my head all this time was death?
Kwan zeroed in on Brutus’s killer. “What manner of creature are you?” He said, raising his knives.
Shit.
He rushed at the man, a blur of shadowy vengeance. Death danced away, eyebrows raised as if confused.
A death too soon. A death too late.
“No,” I screamed. “Don’t hurt him!”
Kwan ignored me. But I hadn’t been talking to him. “Oh God, Kwan stand down!” Now was not the time for him to lose his legendary calm. He didn't know who or what he was attacking.
Death glanced at me with sad eyes. And fled.
Kwan dashed after him, spinning out a magic net to keep him tied to a physical shape.
I tried to stand and blacked out.
I blinked in confusion and realized I was now lying on the ground looking up. I didn’t have time to waste like this!
“Tess,” Tommy said, touching me everywhere in anxious concern. I flailed, batting him away.
“Have to stop him,” I gasped. Kwan. Why were hunters incapable of seeing reason before they tried to murder anything that wasn’t human?
“I’ll go,” Tommy said, but I grabbed his arm to stop him from standing. “Gonna hurt,” I grunted.
His eyes narrowed, but he seemed to know what I was going to do. Maybe he could feel it there, just like I could.
“Yeah, okay. Just come back when you’re done, yeah?” He reached out and snapped the bracelet on my wrist, throwing it over his shoulder into the forest as his flesh smoked where he’d touched the thing.
I nodded, a bare inch from the power-deprived monster howling inside me. “Once I’ve got enough juice to run us both.”
He laughed. “Sure, Tess.” Then I pulled all his energy away from him and devoured it. Tommy slumped forward, lifeless as a fleshy doll.
I gently shoved him off me.
I had spent so long bitching about being asked to protect people, as if it were a burden or a chore. I hadn’t wanted to accept the responsibility that Cloud constantly foisted on me. But I realized now that I needed to man up—wendigo up?—and take that responsibility. It was why I was here, why they’d kept me alive. And now I needed to protect Kwan.
I stood and chased after death.
Chapter 20
I was too late.
I lost his trail. Then I couldn't sense his energy anymore, only his scent. And the smell of his cooling blood, mingled with decaying fall leaves.
I stumbled over a fallen log and slipped in blood-slick mud.
A group of creatures stood on the other side of his body, and I could smell his death on them.
Kwan.
His encouraging smiles, his steady presence, his vital force. Gone.
His toned body hadn’t been maimed or savaged. They’d killed him cleanly. They knew he was mine.
A misshapen bear-like creature lowered its head and let out a low keening sound, full of apology.
A stork-creature slowly moved forward and nudged Kwan’s shoulder, then looked up at me with old, sad eyes.
It was frightened.
“Yours,” it burbled in a birdy trill. I should not have understood, but I did just the same.
I swallowed hard. Rage warred with sadness inside me.
Another person lost.
“Oh, Kwan,” I hit my knees and reached for him. His body aged before my eyes, as Brutus had. But then a field of flowers bloomed, covering him.
The blooms burst into a cloud of butterflies and he was gone. I heard a faint feminine laugh echo and then the clearing was quiet. Kwan was right. He had gone back to his love. To Hyung-sook.
I looked up to see Cloud standing motionless across the wood. I wondered if she could feel his loss the way I felt it when Tommy died, if they had some sort of connect that had drawn her back here. Or if the connection had been to me. Had she come back to save me from my own stupidity?
Fire flared in her eyes. Her axe swung free of its loop at her belt. She took a step and I stood, inserting myself between her and the creatures who had just killed Kwan.
They’d had no choice. Kwan had attacked the god of death. I knew—from my own instincts, and from the whispers of the creatures around me—that if death were removed from the world there would be horrible consequences.
“Cloud,” I held up my hands. The mark where my bracelet had been caught my eyes and I wanted to tear my own arm off. If they hadn’t shackled me, this never would have happened. I could have kept up. Could have fought Brutus on my own, could have stopped Kwan.
She growled.
“You need to calm the fuck down and listen,” I said, fed up with the stupidity of it all.
“Calm?” She whispered. “Is that how you feel? Calm? With Kwan dead at your feet? Now do you see them for the monsters they are?”
I felt my claws elongate. “Brutus attacked me,” I said, trying not to shout. “I couldn't stop him because you took my power away.” I shook my arm where the burn marks were almost completely healed. “Death saved me, Cloud. Death. The black rabbit thing.”
She shook her head, eyes only on her prey, who cowered behind me. She was lost in her own hunger.
“Listen to me!” I roared. She stopped her slow stalking to glance at me.
“Kwan was wrong. He overstepped his bounds. They had no choice,” I said again.
She resumed her pacing.
I stared at her across the clearing—ten feet and a million miles away.
“Come.” She held out a hand, stained with dirt and blood. I wondered how many she had killed to get to the clearing. Her voice was cool and calm as ever, but it was a lie. Much as my whole existence had been a lie.
“You’ll keep killing them.” And using me to kill them. They weren’t all monsters. Just like all hunters weren’t saviors. And if she and Kwan had only acknowledged that truth he might still be alive.
“They killed him,” she whispered. “With no remorse.”
I shook my head. Pain still ate at my chest. I hadn’t loved him. But I had liked him. Trusted him.
“After everything he did for you,” she whispered, echoing my thoughts. And it burned. Because she was right.
And because I wouldn’t turn my anger on creatures who had acted out of instinct and fear. She was wrong about that too…they did feel remorse. They were dripping with it, hurting and scared because they knew that had hurt me. And because they were terrified that now the one person with the power to help them would turn on them too.
I knew the feeling.
“You know you’re wrong,” I hissed, voice raw from screaming, claws flexing and extending restlessly.
A host of others pressed up behind me. Angry, yes. But also puzzled. Lonely. Scared. Lost. And hopeful—because of me. “You keep asking me to step up and take action…to help people. To protect them. I get it now. I do,” My chest hurt. “I need to protect them. They don’t have a voice of their own.”
For a moment, I thought she would bend. That she would cross the distance between us, take me in her arms and magically see reason.
But human beings are creatures of habit. Of chronic misperception. They cling to their beliefs because they are too scared to admit things that might turn their world view upside down.
Cloud had hunted for hundreds of years. She had to hunt to live.
And she wasn’t about to change that for a monster.
“Tess, come here to me. Or I will have to kill you too.” I almost thought she looked sad.
“Then I will just have to stay alive,” I replied, surprised at how silver and cold my voice was, like frost on the forest. I took a step back.
My monster wanted to kill her. To protect the forest spirits behind me.
My heart wanted to cry as it broke again, shattered so many times now that there was nothing left but dust. I had thought…how stupid could I be? I wasn’t anything to Cloud but a convenience. An easy way to feed on the enemy blood she needed. A warm body to fuck. A tool to use against the others. A monster.
“Kwan died because he killed indiscriminately,” I said, struggling to keep my voice even, to keep the tears that pooled in my eyes from falling. “Don’t make the same mistake.” My chest hurt so bad I swore my heart was decaying, shriveling up and dying.
Cloud’s eyes flared. “He died for you. Because I let you live,” she said, voice gone deadly. “He died for my mistake. You have no human heart left, you cold wendigo bitch.”
Her axe flashed as it flew at my head. I side-stepped it and it thunked into a tree behind me. When I turned back, she was gone.
Cloud…had tried to kill me? Like for real this time.
I took a deep breath and doused the last spark of my humanity. Once upon a time I had wanted to die. Now, Tess Vere was finally dead.
I yanked shimmering axe out of the tree, ignoring the burn where it touched my skin. I turned to the forest full of creatures that only I could see, who looked to me for protection from the humans. Mine, the greedy creature in me capered.
Ours they whispered around me, hands of scale and feather and bark reaching out to pat my arms and legs, stroke through my tangled, leaf-strewn hair.
Ahanu assumed human form under the overhanging branches of a maple tree, his ghostly dark eyes sad. A breeze kicked up and vibrant red maple leaves swirled around him in a cyclone, making a dry shushing sound. His ghostly hair and clothes remained untouched.
I cocked my head at him in question. Would he leave me too?
He bowed his head and touched his chest, over his heart. Then he turned raven and winged away into the night.
I laughed as the leaves collapsed to the ground around me, falling on my head and shoulders. I thought he had been sent to watch over me all this time. To help me. But I suddenly realized that he’d never specified what “lady” he was sent here to help.
He was Native American, one of Cloud’s people. Of course he had been sent here for Cloud. It was never about me. He’d only been here to protect her interests. To help her find a new tool in her quest.
I threw my head back and howled, inhuman, haunting.
Hungry.
chapter 21
I was still standing there, staring at the axe, when the shadows under a nearby pine tree started to waver and a vaguely human shape of smoke and shadow formed. I didn’t look straight at it. I didn’t want to see the dapper old man who had ruined my life every step of the way.
I turned the axe over, watching my palm smoke. Could I cut hard enough and deep enough to get the job done? I should probably try for my throat, but if I fucked that up it was going to hurt like a motherfucker.
You will live. The cold voice of death whispered in my mind.
“I should have died a million times by now.” My hand shook.
You must live, my Tess. They need you.
I took a deep, shuddering breath. Then I shoved the axe into my waistband, where the blade rode against my back, awkwardly cushioned by my shirt.
When I looked at the shadows, Death was gone.
When I reached Tommy, I was relieved to find him still in one piece. I sank down to my knees, feeling numb. Kwan was dead. Cloud had abandoned me. Even Ahanu was gone. But hey, at least the freaking god of death was on my side.
Sort of. Maybe.
I was so tired.
I wished, not for the first time, that I had been in the car with Barrett that night. But if I gave up now, Tommy would die for good.
And so would the creatures I felt watching me from the trees. And countless others like me who had been dragged into this involuntarily and were now being hunted like wild game.
I reached out to Tommy, placing a hand over his heart as my own heart thumped like a booming tribal drum. My energy rose, swirling through me and filling my ghoul, bringing him to life.
But I had been exhausted and seriously wounded by a hunter’s weapon tonight, and I hadn’t been able to feed to balance out the power I needed to run both of us. I was like an old battery. The energy flow snapped off suddenly like a broken rubber band.
Tommy twitched. He slowly sat up, his movements sluggish, with none of his usual golden-retriever-like energy.
“Shit,” he groaned. His eyes were an opaque, milky white. He needed more energy, and I had nothing left to give.
I swayed, my head spinning. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “So, so, damned sorry.”
Tommy caught me when I fell. My throat burned and the wendigo madness beat at my mind.
“Where are the hunters?” Tommy’s voice grew more desperate with each word, as he seemed to realize something was very, very wrong. “Why didn’t you feed from one of them?”
I laughed, a wheezy puff of sound. “Kwan is dead. And Cloud is trying to kill me.”
Tommy awkwardly got to his feet, carrying me like a baby. For the first time, he seemed to struggle with my weight as he shuffled back toward the house. “What are we going to do, Tess?”
I could feel the desperation of the creatures around us.
Even over the raging hunger, I could still feel the jagged edges of my broken heart.
“I don’t know, Tommy,” I whispered. The ones who always had the answers were gone. “I really don’t have a fucking clue.”
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You might also enjoy my paranormal romance/urban fantasy series the Demon’s Call Series.
About The Author
Kaye Draper is the author of numerous novels and short stories available in e-format and print. Kaye inhabits the forests and waters of Michigan, where she often finds inspiration for her stories. She is currently hard at work on the next book in the wendigo saga, and the final installment of the Earth and Sky Saga. Sign up for her mailing list to receive free short stories and book updates. Visit her website kayedraper.com, her blog Write Me, Twitter, or Facebook.
More books by Kaye Draper
Wendigo Girl Series
Beauty And The Feast
Creeping Beauty
Demon’s Call Series
Moonlight Calls
Blood Beckons
Destiny Decrees
The Demon’s Birthday Present (short story)
Earth and Sky Saga
Earth And sky
Rise And Fall
Darkness And Light
Gods And Angels (coming soon)
Fantasy Romance
Redemption
A Secret Sky
Paranormal Romance
Survivor
Come Love a Fey Collection
Kelpie (novel)
Pooka (short story)
Mer (short story)
Crow (short story)
Wyvern (short story)
House On The Hill (short story)
Young Adult
Kami Cursed
Kaye Draper, Creeping Beauty
