Bedeviled (5 page)

Chapter Seven

C
ontemporary transportation in all forms made Kyana sick to her stomach. Motorcycles, cars, trains, boats, planes . . . they all made her toss her cookies.

Whatever happened to the good ole days when people rode horses to get from point A to point B? Sure, they were continent bound, but did people
really
need to travel overseas anyway? You'd think the gods would have something a little less vomit-inducing up their sleeves, but
nooooo
. Their transportation revolved around bouncy chariots and the oh-so-pleasant portals and ports. Portals sapped the hell out of her energy, and ports . . . the few times Ryker had physically ported her to a location, she'd gone temporarily blind and a little bit stupid.

But it was the quickest way to get them to Panama City, Florida, which was where Silas's scrying had pointed them to. Actually, it had been pointing to either Panama City or Tallahassee, but Haven had no link to Tallahassee that Kyana knew of. However, she
had
spent the first week of the breakout in Panama City. She'd been ring shopping with her almost-fiancé, a rat bastard traitor who was partly responsible for killing Haven and making Kyana turn her into a Dark Breed. It made sense that she'd return to that place where her world was normal for the last time before turning to shit. More sense than Tallahassee anyway.

After a short jaunt through the blindingly white wormholes, Ryker, Silas, and Kyana landed with a trio of groans on pavement hot enough to fry the skin from their bones. Kyana's elbows skidded across gravel and she heard the light rip of leather across her knees.

“You owe me a pair of pants,” she gasped, waiting for Ryker to say the words that would return her sight.

“
Libero
,” he said, and in the next instant, she saw a blurry version of Silas sprawled out in front of her. His cheek was pressed to pavement, his eyes squeezed shut. It helped her ego to know she wasn't the only one with a weak stomach.

“That”—Silas flopped over onto his back—“sucked. I'm going to French kiss the hell out of my bike when we get back.”

“I'm sure the two of you will make very pretty Tonka Toys together.” She rolled over and pressed her hand to her belly. She hoped like hell Haven was here, or that trip had been for nothing.

From her position on the ground, she could see the glare of a blinking caution light overhead. The streets here were as eerily quiet as they were in St. Augustine, but far less chilling since she didn't know the soundtrack to Panama City as she knew her home's.

She worked her way to her feet, drinking in the sights around her. Abandoned buildings, check. Overturned cars, check. The stench of blood and death, check. Yep, normal town, all right. She was pretty sure that if they ducked into one of the boarded-up buildings, they'd find either a group of humans huddled together, or the evidence that they hadn't been very successful at staying alive.

“So how do we find the mall?” Kyana hadn't really expected an answer. Was there more than one around here that Haven might have visited?

“Ten years ago you could have found a phone booth and ripped the address out of the yellow pages. Now, if you don't carry a smart phone, you're screwed. I hate progress,” Silas said, dusting off his jeans.

“Taking it you don't carry one?” Ryker said.

“Nope.”

Kyana wasn't surprised. Silas hated the gods' Beacons as much as she had. He didn't like to be tied down to anything, and carrying a cell phone around would have made him too easy to get ahold of. Not to mention, it would have stolen some of the mystery he worked so hard to develop around himself.

“There are a lot of malls in Panama City,” he said. “Lucky for you, I think I remember where several are from my spring break partying days a few years ago. But how are you going to know which one she might have gone to?”

“We don't,” Kyana muttered. “Take us to the ones you remember and we'll just hope we get lucky.”

Turned out, they weren't. Panama City Mall was the first one they stumbled upon, and so far, as they walked the echoey halls, they'd found it empty, save for a few families hiding out in Aéropostale and Best Buy. Ryker used his Beacon to signal help for the humans, but other than that, they'd left the groups alone.

Hopefully, someone would arrive and get the humans safely Below where the other refugees were camped. Regardless, Kyana wasn't overly worried. The malls had been one of the first places cleaned out by Dark Breeds. Lots of succulent young girls there to feed off. The real threat had probably moved on a long time ago.

But as their heels clicked on the tile floors of the empty halls, Kyana noted that, along with the absence of Dark Breed stink, Haven's scent was nowhere to be found either.

“Where's another mall?” she asked Silas.

“There are a lot of town square–type shopping centers. Did Haven give you any idea of a particular store?”

“Dillard's,” she said, surprising even herself at how quickly the recollection came to her. “She and Drake were ring shopping when Tartarus broke out, and I remember her saying she'd slept in Dillard's.”

“There's one here.” Ryker stretched his arm over his head, pointing to the navigational signs. “Should we check it out first?”

Kyana shook her head. “I'm telling you, she's never stepped foot here. Her human-based scent would still be here and there's enough Lychen left in me that I'd be able to pick it up. It's not her style anyway. I should have realized that sooner. Haven's a mall rat, but she likes quirky mall strips, antique shops, boutiques. She's never been into the sterile shopping experience.”

“I might know the place you're looking for,” Silas said. “It's quirky and I
think
it has a Dillard's.”

The jog to the ocean took three times as long with Silas trailing behind. Though she set a slow, steady pace, he was almost gasping for breath by the time the tall palms came into sight.

Kyana slowed to a walk. “Which way?”

Silas pointed to the left and they cut across the parking lot past colorful bookstores, clothing boutiques, and eateries. Most had broken windows, their goods scattered across the floors. Usually, in a disaster, it was looters who caused the destruction. In this case, the red smears along the pastel buildings told a different story.

Ryker moved toward the sidewalk, but Kyana motioned him back into the open. She didn't smell Dark Breeds, but that didn't mean they weren't hiding behind the stench of death carried by the sea breeze.

They stopped near the front doors. Silas knelt to catch his breath while Ryker and Kyana scanned the large building. There were chains on the inside of the doors and furniture covering the glass. Humans, either trapped or long since something's dinner, had tried to barricade themselves from the danger.

Whether they'd been successful remained to be seen.

She closed her eyes and drank in a gulp of pheromone-laced air. There were definitely humans inside, and they smelled alive. But more importantly, Haven's scent was among them.

“Wait here while I find a way in.”

“Break . . . the . . . glass.” Silas was still winded from their jog. “Between the three of us . . . the debris will barely slow us down.”

“And what if there are people still inside?” Ryker scanned the building.

“There are,” she said.

Ryker frowned and pointed skyward. “There may be an opening on the roof. A ventilation shaft we can use. It's not that high.”

“Not all of us can do the Spider-Man thing.” Silas stood to his full height and glared at Ryker. “Besides, if they blocked the doors, I'm sure they thought about the roof. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any humans left to worry about.”

“And there won't be when we're gone if we breach their defenses and leave them wide open to attack,” Ryker said. “It will take until dawn at the earliest before help arrives. We can't leave them on their own, and we sure as hell can't take them with us. We have to find another way in. Unless
you
want to stay with them.”

Feeling a full-blown battle of wills coming on, Kyana stepped between them before they brought any and every creature that went bump in the night down on their asses. She didn't mind a good fight. Actually, it always made her feel better. But now wasn't the time.

“I'm going to find another way in. You two wait here. I won't be long.”

“You can't go in there by yourself,” both men demanded at once.

She glared from one to the other, her gaze finally coming to rest on Silas. “I'm not going to risk killing the humans. This is the right place and if Haven came back, there's something important in there. I intend to find it.”

“This doesn't look like the place you described from your vision,” Ryker said. “You sure this is right?”

“No, I'm not sure, but it's all we have right now,” she said, slinging her pack over her shoulder. “I won't be long. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone, okay?”

Before they could offer more objections, Kyana turned and sprinted into the shadows. Jumping to the low roof wasn't even a good workout. Neither was removing the ventilation fan's cover.

She knelt before the opening, easing her head inside the dark hole. She didn't have a problem with small spaces. However, the loud whir of the fan was proof that the mall was still hooked up with electricity, and she didn't much like the thought of falling the wrong way and ending up as a pile of ground beef.

With a deep breath, she eased into the tight shaft and slowly made her way away from the noise. After several false starts that led to dead ends, she finally found a path that opened into a maintenance area.

The minute she eased the heavy door open, Haven's light scent became stronger . . . as did the humans' fear.

She inhaled deeply. The humans' numbers weren't large, but their need for self-preservation was strong. She could sense their determination to survive. It was probably the only thing that had kept them alive all this time. She ran her tongue over her fangs, noted begrudgingly how much they'd shrunk since absorbing Artemis's blood. It didn't matter how small the fangs were, or that she didn't intend to use them, these humans would never believe she was one of the good guys.

Just a few days ago, she would have gleefully walked into their midst, dominating and intimidating them and feeding off their fears. Today, however, that didn't fill her with the joy it once had.

There was no
maybe
about it. She was definitely changing.

Instead of fighting against this new side of herself, Kyana pulled the whistle from beneath her shirt and fingered the gold cylinder. Somewhere in this building was the lead they needed to find Haven—the reason Haven might have returned. If she'd come back here for a sense of the familiar, then there'd have to be a recent scent strong enough to follow.

It would make her search faster if she could be in more than one place at a time, and thanks to Artemis's present, she could do exactly that.

She blew once, then set the whistle at her feet and stepped back. As if nothing more than an illusion, the whistle shimmered, its golden glow warm and inviting. One at a time, the pups stepped from the light to sit at her feet, their tails thumping the dusty floor, their heads turned up anxiously awaiting orders.

With a grin, Kyana knelt before the lead pup and scratched her behind the ears. “Ready to get to work?”

She gave a soft bark and nudged Kyana's hand. Reaching into her pack, Kyana grabbed the velvet pouch she'd taken from Haven's room and slipped it out of the protective plastic baggie. Careful not to leave too much of her own scent on it, she held it to each pup's nose. Hopefully, it would offer something more substantial for them to track.

When the tail thumping became almost deafening in the small maintenance room, Kyana slipped a leaf of eyebright from her duffel and sniffed. The strong anise fragrance reminded her of the raki she enjoyed with a splash of blood. Definitely an improvement over most of the vile substances she was forced to consume when attempting magic.

Slipping the leaf onto her tongue, she sputtered. Instantly, her mouth went numb. The tingling spread throughout her body until she could no longer support her own weight. Dropping to her knees, she placed her hand over her racing heart and willed herself to calm down and let the effects of the herb take control.

Her vision blurred and narrowed into the worst case of tunnel vision she'd ever experienced. The drab, dusty colors slowly faded until all real color vanished completely.

It took her a moment to realize that she was seeing through the eyes of the lead bitch, which might have been pretty cool if it wasn't accompanied by blazing heat that seemed to be devouring her from the inside out. Sweat beaded on her temple, slickened her palms, and dampened her back. She was suddenly so thirsty, she couldn't think straight.

The pups watched her expectantly, their tails throwing up enough dust that it nearly strangled her already parched throat. The smallest of the three licked her chin and whimpered softly. The lead female took a step to the door, then turned back to look at Kyana, her head tilted in question.

Kyana opened the door and pointed. “Locate, find, fetch.”

She didn't know the command, but one of them seemed to be right. She received three soft, throaty woofs before they disappeared into the mall.

Pushing the door closed, she leaned against it, rested her head on her knees and closed her eyes. Gradually, she adjusted to the dog's movements, and her body began to cool. Forcing herself to concentrate on the animal's progress and not her own misery, she checked out their surroundings.

They moved with ease, following Haven's trail as they picked their way around scattered displays and broken shelving. The scent filled Kyana with such longing for her friend that it would have brought her to her knees if she wasn't already sitting. Sisters. They'd been closer than any siblings, bonded by trust and faith—things that came too rarely in Kyana's life.