Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel) (16 page)

Nerina smiled too, a little self-deprecatingly. "I'm sure I'll probably end up in your way, but I'm here on the strictest of orders."

"Ah, I see."

I did see. Kira had sent Nerina to keep an eye on us.

Her face fell. "Please don't be offended."

"Of course not. I understand your position. And you're more than welcome to stick with us." I grinned. "We have nothing to hide."

Nerina shook her head. "I'm not here to spy on you. Despite my orders, I will only relay only the information that you wish me to. Lady Kira does not need to know how you tie your shoelaces, or what you have for dinner." She gave a conspiratorial nod.

I trusted her. A little. But I was still aware that her loyalty didn't lie with me. In any case, we really didn't have anything to hide.
 

"All right," I said. "I'll tell you where we are so far, but there are a few things we can't reveal simply because they are only leads. Nothing certain."

"That's fine," she agreed. "You give me the formal version and I'll pass that on."

I nodded, launching into a brief description of nothing.
 

After I finished, Nerina considered what I'd told her in silence. "Perhaps I can broaden the picture for you."

"I'm sure you can. Will you do another mind-meld?"

She nodded. "Come."
 

We got to our feet and she led the way to the sofa where she waited as I lay down with my head on a pile of cushions and straightened my clothes.

Then she knelt beside me as our sofa was barely wide enough to seat two comfortably, and only one lying down. Less than one. My legs stuck awkwardly off the other end of the sofa.

My stomach felt a little strange, churning in anticipation of the mind meld. My last experience hadn't been fun.

"No special juice this time?" I asked.

Nerina laughed. "Unfortunately, no. But having already had the experience once before, your body should be able to adjust very quickly."

I settled back down as Nerina held my hand gently within hers.

"Just remember, keep calm. Relax. Nothing that's happening
around
you is happening
to
you."

I took a deep breath and waited as the strength began to slowly leave my body. Although Nerina would be near to guide me, I still anticipated disliking the whole experience.

I did as she'd instructed me to do the previous time, leaned on her energy which pulsed beside me, a constant comfort.

Lights danced beneath my lids, much brighter than in the last vision.

I opened my eyes slowly, bringing my hand up to shield them from the bright sun beating down on my head.
 

Strangely enough, I felt no heat against my skin and even the air I inhaled was not warm at all. A good reminder this was just a vision. I wouldn't experience injury or death if it came.
 

But someone had.
 

I floated, weightless, and when I looked down in search of solid ground I found it a few inches below me. On it were the upturned toes of a pair of dusty, dark feet.
 

I shifted my view and saw that the feet belonged to an ancient woman whose blank white eyes stared up at the bright blue sky.

I'd found the source of my vision.

The land around me stretched into the distance, dusty and dry, dotted by desiccated, skeletal trees that had probably last produced leaves hundreds of years ago. In the distance, a small collection of grass huts huddled together against the heat, while a little boy wielded a pale stick at an emaciated cow, herding the animal back to the tiny village.

No, not a stick. A slim rod of silver light.
 

Something shifted beside me and a man in dark military clothes moved past, his dusty boots making a hollow deadly sound against the dry ground, a holstered black pistol slapping against his upper thigh.

I tensed. Watched helplessly as the boy skipped along, unaware of the danger that followed him. There was nothing I could do as the soldier closed in on the child, drew the weapon, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.

A blast of light spewed from the barrel, reaching out towards the boy and knocking him over almost instantly. The little body jerked and fell forward arms and legs in an ungainly sprawl.
 

The soldier continued past the cow, ignoring both child and animal as he headed for the huts.

This killing was entirely different from the last. This was no complex infiltration via friendship. Here was simple execution by a stranger.

Unable to move, tied to the spirit of the old woman, I was forced to watch from afar as the man went from hut to hut sending blinding flashes of light spewing through one doorway after another.

A few times I saw responding flashes of light--perhaps the people of the village trying to fight back--but they were soon overpowered. Then it was over, and the lone gunman started back toward me.

A shout sounded to my right but I couldn't see what was happening until the woman's spirit saw. I waited, heart in my mouth. Then two men ran towards the village, deep ochre skirts draped around their waists, their faces tattooed, colored necklaces swaying frantically around their necks.

This was a Masai tribe who had paranormal powers.

A Masai tribe who had just been massacred.
 

The soldier pulled a second weapon from behind his back and ran, sending bursts of bright lightning straight at the tribesmen. The Masai warriors gave as good as they got, sending their own streaks of silver energy bolts straight at the soldier. They would have won, their power was strong enough, but two more black-clad soldiers joined the first.

The three solders bore down on the approaching warriors firing non-stop. I swallowed hard, studying the guns. They weren't the normal, run-of-the-mill weapons, and the ammunition used wasn't of human origin. The killers were using paranormal ammunition.

Although the warriors had managed to fight off one man with their powerful air magic, they were defenseless in the face of this new assault. They died as the rest of their people had died and their murderers set fire to the village.
 

Smoke billowed around us and I blinked automatically before realizing that the acrid air had no effect on me. I hovered over the old woman's body while the entire village died, gutted that I'd been unable to help. It felt wrong. It
was
wrong.
 

My attention moved back to the men, now huddled together as one pulled out a sat phone.
 

He placed it against his ear and said, "Victor here. Mission complete."

The air buzzed and Victor nodded. "Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

He put the phone back into his pocket, slid his pistol into the holster at his thigh, and made a circling motion with his finger in the air above his head. They moved out and my view shifted to watch them disappear along the horizon.

I could still feel Nerina's presence beside me, and though it was a comfort, it did nothing to make me feel better. I needed to go back. Find this ammunition.

My mind immediately went to Tara, and then disappointment surged through me. I had no way of contacting her, so whatever information we needed regarding these paranormal ammo we would have to get it somewhere else.

More moments passed. I was beginning to wonder what I was still doing there when I heard the sound of feet slapping the ground.
 

A young girl sank to the sand beside the corpse of the old woman, her head bent forward so I couldn't see her face.

She wailed in anguish and threw her hands out over the body. Then she held shaking fingers over the woman's chest. Soon light shimmered, flowing from her fingertips, and sinking into the corpse.

 
The light burned so bright I wanted to shield my eyes, but I didn't dare in case I missed something. But, as I watched, tears pricked my eyes. The magic wasn't working.

The girl began to cry in earnest, rocking back and forth beside the body, wailing out her grief. The sound floated on the hot, thick air and faded away into the silent plain.

I felt my insides tighten, and knew Nerina was taking me back. But as I drifted away, the girl looked up. Her gaze followed me, those eyes glowing brightly, swirling light shimmering, disappearing only when she blinked.

She stared at me, eyes wide, surprised.

Then she blinked once more, her eyelids lowered. Before they lifted again I was gone.

I
MANAGED
A
HEAVY
-
LIDDED
blink, then dragged my eyes open. Nerina had transported me to the African desert, and yet I hadn't been submitted to the intense heat of the blistering sun, nor had I taken scorching breaths of midday air.

I knew this.

It didn't matter.
 

I exhaled, forcibly expelling the air from my lungs, frantic for a breath of fresh cool air, as if the heat had parched my very soul.
 

A part of me recognized the desire to erase the hot air was really a symbol for the desire to erase the awful experience. I'd watched helplessly as a boy had been gunned down, as a village was decimated, and as an old woman died in the arms of a grieving child.

I hated just being a bystander. More than anything I hated that I'd gotten there after the fact, a mere observer, rather than be of any help.

My body convulsed in a shudder and soft fingers wrapped around mine, a comforting squeeze I didn't even realize I'd needed.

"How are you feeling?" Nerina asked, her voice soft and concerned. Her face without its usual cowl was unshadowed, and for the first time I saw color in her pale milky eyes. A honey brown that reminded me too much of the child I'd left alone in the desert, the one whose keening had struck my heart.

I cleared my throat, the sound rattling around as I slowly pushed into a sitting position. My head throbbed, a dull, insistent pounding and I suspected the trip had taken its toll on me, especially since I'd gone in without the special magic juice.

"I'm fine." I forced the words out. "Just tell me what the hell that was." My voice cracked in my too-dry throat and I hacked a cough. Clearly my body hadn't gotten the message that the vision wasn't real.

Nerina's mouth twisted into a sad bow. "I know how you feel. The first time I experienced that vision it took me hours to recover. The only difference between us and paranormals like yourself is that we experience every emotion as well as the impact of the immediate environment."

I nodded, wincing at the throbbing in my head. "Yeah, I definitely noticed that. As hot as it was, I didn't feel the heat in the air. Or the sunshine. At the time it made sense, since I wasn't actually there, but now I feel really strange. As if my body doesn't believe what my mind already knows."

Nerina nodded as she removed her hands and straightened. She folded her fingers in her lap. "It's because you are not a death talker. The vision we experienced was through the eyes of the old woman. Just for the record, for a short while after death, the recently deceased do experience environmental impact, so she would have still felt sunshine, and the heat of the day. She would have still been able to smell the dusty air and smell the blood."

I opened my mouth to say I still found the death talker's ability fascinating, when a knock on the door interrupted me and then a key scraped into the lock.
 

I drew on a tiny bit of my panther nose and confirmed that Anjelo and Lily had arrived.

Anjelo smiled as he held the door open for Lily, then shut the door behind him and handed her the key. Then he saw us.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked, brow creased.

 
A hiss of breath escape my throat and I let my head drop back against the sofa. "You came just in time. Nerina was showing me what happened in Africa."

 
The pair took seats on the opposite sofa, both bore worried expressions while they waited.

I gave them a rundown, from African sunshine to Masai warriors with interesting powers. Anjelo's head moved almost imperceptibly left to right, the tiny action telling me he was still uneasy about me being in danger.