Green Flame Assassin (Demon Lord series, book 2) (30 page)

God, kill me now!

At parade rest, their hands locked behind their backs, the
Thorns
blocked our way, forming a line.  In front of that line loomed a chunky Amazon lacking makeup.  Instead of sneakers, she wore well-worn combat boots, and carried a clipboard and heavy flashlight.  There were dents in the handle as if she’d used the light to beat in a few heads in her time.

Osamu bowed to her.  “Excuse me, Ma’am, we are in a hurry.”

“I don’t know exactly what’s been going on, but you will remain until the police get here.”

I gave her my most practiced look of surprised innocence.  “This has nothing to do with us.  We’re just good Samaritans who stopped when we saw an accident, hoping to maybe save a few lives.
”  I looked back at the now human bodies on the street. “Unfortunately, those naked frat boys were beyond help.  Drunk driving, it’s a terrible thing.”

Osamu nodded sagely.

The Amazon, her pink beret canted at a rakish angle, jabbed her flashlight into his chest.  “Didn’t I see you poking those corpses with a sword just now?”

The police cars were getting closer.  We needed to bail.

“You can search me if you want?” Osamu offered.  “It was probably just a trick of shadows.”

I started to push past her.  “Look at the limo while you’re at it.  Not a dent.  Not a scratch.  We didn’t cause the wreck.” 

She swung the flashlight over to block me.

I don’t have time to kill them all.
  I sighed in regret and went to Plan B, warming up my
Dragon Voice
tattoo.  A wash of agony offended every nerve-ending as if I’d been skinned in a wink.  I shuddered, swallowed a scream, and forced out words that rolled like thunder, deep as the abyss where I’d dropped my heart years ago.  Magic gripped the
Thorns
, the power of my words, “You know we had nothing to do with anything here.  Get out of our way, and when the police arrive, you will promptly confess to these murders—and completely forget you ever saw us.  Do you understand?”

The
Thorns of Justice
nodded and spoke in unison, “We understand.”

Piling into the limo, Osamu and I drove away.

TWENTY-ONE

“I’m a hard man, and moving

in for the kill gets me harder.”

                                            —Caine Deathwalker

As the limo rolled on, I replaced spent clips and put my PPKs away.  I grabbed a bottle of Tsingtao beer from the bar, wishing I had some shrimp chow mein and a spring roll to go with it.  Homes flashed by.  At the next red light, Osamu’s formal-but-relaxed voice came across the intercom, “Caine-sama, are we heading to the Victorian now?”

“No.  I think the new Alpha needs to know just how fast retaliation comes when his wolves don’t play well with others.”  I gave directions to the wolf compound and drew my phone from a pocket.  The limo glided through another intersection, and I punched in a call for Josh.  I’d need backup for this.

He answered the second chime.  “Hello?”

“Josh, its Caine.  We were just attacked by magically enhanced wolves that followed us from the casino.  You need to be careful getting Kat home tonight.  I’d especially watch myself in the parking garage.”

Josh’s voice stayed unexcited and deeply mellow, “Good to know.”

“I’m on my way to have words with the new Alpha.  Want to meet me there?”

“Oh, yes.  Don’t start the party without me.”

“Sure.”
  I started to put my phone away and it went off, playing a Queen ringtone:
Who Wants To Live Forever?
  I read a text from Vivian: WHERE R U? 

I replied: BEHIND U, LOOKING UP YOUR DRESS. 

There was a pause, then: PERVERT.

I texted back: YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.  I expected her to call me an idiot or an ass.  This flirty side of her was going to take a little getting used to. 

She sent: I’M GETTING CLEANED UP AT KAT’S.  YOU SHOULD C THE SIZE OF HER TUB!

Talk about fanning my flames…
 

I sent: LIKE 2, BUT WOLVES MADE A MOVE ON ME.  I NEED 2 HUFF, PUFF, AND
kick n theIr FACES—
GET SOME WOLF PELTS.

SOUNDS FUN.  ON MY WAY.

Pocketing my phone, I picked up my beer.  It went down smooth.  So did the one after that.  On the edge of drifting off, I gave instructions to Osamu.  “When we get there, park a block from the wolf compound.  Vivian should arrive close to the time we do.  Josh is coming from the casino, so he’ll need an extra half hour.  I want to sleep until we’re all set to go in and kick ass, but if Vivian wants to wake me up early with a blow job, I won’t be mad.”

“Yes, Caine-sama.  You are the soul of restraint.”

“Damn straight.”  I nodded somewhat drunkenly and stretched out on the seat, drifting into inner darkness. 

*    *    *

Approaching consciousness, I dreamed of Ouroboros, the great snake eternally devouring her own tail.  She let go of herself and rippled toward me, eyes baleful lanterns of red that streaked the cold mists pink.  The snake coiled in motion, landed, and sprang at me like a slate-green spear, but slammed into a wall of pulsing red—my protective barrier snapping on. 

Strange, I’ve been in dreams of danger before without my shield
blazing to my rescue.  This means something.

The snake flopped back off the shield, thumpi
ng the ground in a tangle.  Slowly unknotting, she rose once more, her body a question mark as her eyes became black ice.  Distorting ripples in the air—like expanding rings of glass—passed through the snake, making her less real.  As if another mind were hijacking the dream-shape, her eyes shifted to crystalline purple, like those of the dream seer I’d left in L.A.

“
Kimberley?”

“I’ve found you!”

“What do you want?” I asked.

The snake’s torso flattened out, sprouting arms.  Her face changed to
Kimberley’s.  The seer’s thoughts pierced my shield.  She said;
I’m on my way.  Whatever’s been blocking the dream stone has stopped.  I can sense it now.  I can trace it!

I nodded.  “Fine, call me when you hit town.  I’ll let you know where you can find me.”

Her amethyst stare danced across the dragon blood tattoos patterning my body.  She smiled with fascination and a bit of awe. 
When this is all over, I would like to study you.

“No free ride,” I told her.  “You want a close look at me, you’ll have to give me the same.”

I sensed Kimberley withdrawing from the dream.  The snake’s eyes darkened back to black.  No longer piloted by the seer, the serpent bared fangs, returning to an aggressive posture.  Oddly enough, my protective shield collapsed, as if unable to tell friend from foe any longer.  Well, there were other ways to handle dark haunts on the dreamscapes.  Within a dream, belief is the ultimate power.   I simply needed to give my natural arrogance free rein.  As long as I believed I was indestructible…

The snake whipped its head at me, jaws dislocating so it could swallow my whole head, crushing it like an egg.  

I caught its open mouth and peeled it back.  The snake writhed as I rammed it into the ground, pinning its spine, breaking its back with a knee.  I continued to pull its lips toward its tail, letting it swallow itself in an entirely new way.  Soon, I had the critter turned inside out, blind with pain, thrashing desperately.

I concentrated and the pale mists glowed green and blue and yellow, swirling like paint on a canvas.  New images formed.  I stood on the golden sand of a tropical beach, under the swaying palm trees.  A cool breeze caressed my naked flesh.  Before me, sun-kissed ocean stretched out forever.  I settled onto a conveniently placed lounge chair.  A skin of frost stilled the water, becoming an island of ice just off-shore.  An oval of ice buckled upward to form an oyster shell.  The lips of the thing dropped to face me.  The top half hinged up again to show the interior.  The inside shell was clotted with ice.  At its center a figure moved, a naked woman.  My subconscious obviously knew what I liked.

There was something very familiar about her enormous tits and ice blue hair.  As she closed the distance, walking on frozen sea to reach the shore, her pale face acquired a crimson smile.  It was my ice fey neighbor Izumi, at least the dream version of her.  I wondered if back in L.A., Izumi was perhaps dreaming of me.

She strolled up the beach to me, pausing to stare down at my engorged member.  Her smile widened.  As her head lowered on me—warm, wet, providing a pleasant suction—I closed my eyes.  The attention I received started as exploratory, teasing, then shifted into ardent intensity.  Staying hard while a very cold mouth steals your warmth wasn’t very difficult; after all, this was
my
dream.