Into Death's Arms (19 page)

    
The body
started bubbling and melting
and smelling worse than
before,
I gagged. 
For a
moment,
I thought I might
be sick. T
his was a big deal for me;
it was what I’d been raised for. It was what I’d been born to do. I gathered my strength and took shallow breaths so the smell didn’t make me feel any worse.

    
I climbed back up to the window to peer in. A little girl with big blond curls lay in the bed closest to the window. She clutched a teddy bear close to her chest. Tears lay dr
ying on her little pink cheeks and I knew
I had done the right thing.
I hurt,
and I was going to be bruised.
I had bled,
and
I had just killed something that looked like a man,
but
I
had to done the right th
ing. It felt good to be the
AoD, t
hank God.

      
When I got to my
jeep,
I wondered how I was supposed to drive home without getting silver blood all over the interior, but after about three seconds of
thought,
I decided I just didn’t care. I’d steam clean it tomorrow. I climbed in and drove away.

  
At
home,
I
showered, stumbled into bed and prayed for dreamless sleep. I never get what I ask for.

   
I dreamt again this time m
y viewpoint was
as if I were kneeling before a Shifters
throne.
 
The
Shifter
King was sprawled catlike and graceful across the massive
red
silk upholstered seat.
His long brown hair spilled over the arm of his throne. His mouth was pinched in a cruel expression.
“I assume you have something of importance to tell me Nikissos? As much as I know you enjoy t
he merits of kneeling before me
, I am sure you do not enjoy my company, so out with it.” The
Shifter
’s harem spread around him like bu
tterflies in a garden snickered
. His men laughed outright.

 
 
 
 
I
,
well
,
the hand attached to the body I was seeing
through pulled at the silver collar
around our
neck. Silver collar
,
ooh
, somebody was in trouble.
M
ost
Shadow-born
are at the very least allergic to silver, some find just contact deadly. The weird part was I could feel it burning like it was actually around my neck. I
didn’t like
this dream much. “The AoD left
for Peru this afternoon, Lord Ki
n
s
ley.” My mouth moved. Okay so
the
guy
who’s body
I was visiting was definitely
a
male
. A male
with a rough tired
sounding
voice.

 
 
 
 
Ki
n
s
ley changed
slightly at the mention of my father
. H
is nose and mouth elongating, his teeth sharpening, his eyes turning that yellow wolfy color
, making him look more animal than
man
.
That would be why
they are
called
Shifters
. “An
d the girl,
” he growled, his black eyes penetrating. I felt like a bird right after he realizes the cat
’
s there but just before the cat pounces. Yeah, like he was going t
o pounce on me and eat me whole-
feathers and all.
The girl
? A
h, hell
,
that would be me
,
wouldn’t it? I was the only girl living in the AoD’s house.

   
Movement distracted me from my egocentric thoughts.
His harem
had begu
n to move away from him in very slow measured movements. My guess was they didn’t want to be in the direct path of an enraged
Shifter
any more than I did.
I also guessed it wasn’t a good idea to move fast around something that had instincts that were more wolf than man.

 
 
 
My head, well I know it’s not technically mine
,
but
the
guy the King had called Nikissos, Nikissos’
head dropped.
He bowed to the King
,
but
he
wasn’t happy about doing it. I could feel that collar burn
against us
again. The tile beneath us was a cream color with gold ribbons threaded through it.
I bet it was expensive.
Our mouth opened and shut several times as if we were trying to keep the information in
,
but it was fighting to get out just the same. “She remains,
”
he nearly spat.
I got the distinct feeling this Nikissos fellow didn’t want to be answering any of Kinsley’s questions.

 
 
 
 
Ki
n
s
ley leaned forward and pulled himself together getting rid
of the dog boy look. “Excellent,” h
is smile was still rather wolfish. “Laith and his pack can finish her off tonight.” He said as if to himself
. H
e certainly wasn’t paying attention to Nikissos anymore. I bet he was grateful.
I wasn’t
. H
e had just said he was sending some boys over to finish me off. Hadn’t I had enough for one night? I really didn’t want to fight a pack of Shifters.
“Orson
,” h
e called loudly.
I started just a little
as
the
Shifter
’s voice carried in the tiled hall.

 
 
 
 
“Yes,” boomed a barrel of a man. Holy smokes
. H
e was
the
size of a rhinoceros
,
but walking upright.
He looked like a shaggy animal. His hair was brown and cut in that shaggy feathered look that was so popular this year. His eyes were the color of melted chocolate, but they were fixed in a squint. He must spend a lot of time glaring at the world around him. His clothing bespoke money. He wore pants perfectly tailored to his shape. Of
course,
I was willing to bet they didn’t make pants for a guy that size without some serious
tailoring. His shirt and jacket
were the same mat
erial and color of the pants. I sighed, I mean I know they are
Shadow-born
but anyone ever hear of brown, grey, hell even charcoal would be better than the monotone clothes set that seemed to be the uniform of the shadowed world.

 
 
 
 
 
The King smiled,
his black eyes l
ighting up with malicious glee.
“Go tell my son I wish to see him
.
I have something important for him to oversee.” He waved his hand dismissively at the giant.
The big guy,
Orson
,
he’d
called him
,
lumbered away.

   
Then
Kinsley
stopped and looked down at us again. “Are you still here
Dream-walker
?
”
Dream-walker
? I thought. W
hat the hell
? Y
ou mean I was dream walking a
Dream-walker
?
How exactly did that work
? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I’d killed one tonight. Maybe his blood covering me had triggered some kind of precog jumpstart. I wish I knew more about this precognitive dream thing. It wasn’t a power I had expected at all.

    
My dad didn’t have it
,
and I guess he’d forgot
ten my mom had. I wondered if the
Dream-walker
could sense me.
I felt nauseous I
just
knew this wasn’t going to work out well for me
. “You have served me well,
” Kinsley’s
voice was all smiles
,
but his eyes were harsh
still
. “I will reward you. Choose one of my ladies to entertain you tonight.” The
women
in question
looked horrified briefly
. T
hen almost in
unison
their heads dipped down so they could study
the tile floor like it was a Rembrandt all of a sudden.

 
 
 
 
Nikissos’ voice was soft and full of pain.
“As always you are generous but…” Kenley’s fist came down so fast on our face that he didn’t have time to finish his sentence. We fell forw
ard toward
the marble.
I felt teeth piercing our bottom lip.

 
 
 
 
 
“Is there so
mething wrong with my women?” Ki
n
s
ley drove his fist into our face again. I knew
Shifters
were the
strongest beings in
the shadow world but damn this sucked. I
t
was like being punched by a bullet train. Our mouth opened a
gain but no sound came out as Ki
n
s
ley struck again and again until our blood pooled around his feet.
The
Dream-walker
didn’t even put up a token resistance
,
and he wasn’t healing like
Dream-walkers
were supposed to. I wondered if it had something to do with that silver collar around his neck. The blood spilled over
onto our hands wet and sticky and s
ilver
in color
. H
u
h, it always struck me as kind of funny that the blood of a
Dream-walker
was silver
. R
ight now it wasn’t so funny.
 

    
We wavered
,
teetering on the edge of consciousness.
Darkness crowded in. Black spots bubbled around our vision.
“Get out of here before
I forget why I let you live.” Ki
n
sley hissed w
hile licking the blood from his right fist.

 
 
 
 
He didn’t need to tell us twice. We beat feet toward the door with a speed that belied our injured state. I was glad to leave King Psycho just as quickly as possible.
I bet Nikissos felt the same way. I actually felt bad for the poor
bastard having to live like that
. I made a mental note to put him out of his misery as soon as I possibly could.
Nikissos headed down a hallway and pulled a key from his coat. It was
steel and
cool in our hand. He opened the door only to find a scrumptious looking man sprawled across the bed.

    
For a moment, I wished I had control of this body
. T
hen I remembered I was in
Shifter
country and bestiality was not in my
book of things to do before I
die
d
.
Oh, and the body I was riding in was male. There’s no such thing as a female
Dream-walker
. T
hey don’t come in girl. A girl child born of a
Dream-walker
was human. Heck a female born to a
Dream-walker
was more human than I was.

 
 
 
 
The man on the bed
smiled up at me
,
and I thought maybe I should
reconsider. “You look like hell,” h
e said
. H
is voice all rumbley like a purring housecat.
His blond hair was short in the back but spilled ove
r his forehead in a very surfer-
like lock. It was so blond it looked almost like snow against the dark maroon sheets.