The car bounced and jerked as it traveled across uneven patches of dirt and grass. Jack grabbed Marin’s arm and only let go when the car slammed to a stop.
Yanking the door off a car required a lot of force—enough to have propelled a dark, vaguely human winged creature several yards from the car.
Nate. And he was headed back to them.
As the creature turned in the air, his naked winged body twisted and pulled. His featherless wings strained with the effort of tightly banking, and his clawed hands seemed to snatch at the air. Ropey muscles bulged under dark leathery skin, and his wings beat at the air as he closed the distance between them. A grimace stretched across the aswang’s face, making it’s bald-headed, not-quite human head even more grotesque.
Jack watched Kaisermann exit the SUV and followed after him. Jack’s chest tightened. He really liked that old guy. “Iris, if you can summon a ghost or two, that would be helpful.”
“I’m trying to find my inner peace, dammit!”
Since Iris had gone off her rocker and as yet Grandma Abi hadn’t made an appearance—Nate was still here, so he could only assume—they needed another plan. And he had no gun. Great. No sleeping during active cases and no more leaving the country for independent jobs.
Jack could hear the dull thud of Nate’s massive wings beat as he closed in on Kaisermann and him. Marin, several feet distant, faded away, replaced by her dragon self.
Jack put an arm around Kaisermann and encouraged him to huddle on the ground. They’d want to be low if Marin was going to try to fry Nate. She tried—but the blueish flames seemed to lick at Nate without touching him. He didn’t flinch—or catch fire or even smoke a little. No effect, just as Lachlan had said.
Not good news, because that meant he was still coming.
Jack crouched over the smaller Kaisermann. Nate was slow, shockingly slow. But still fast enough to outrun an elderly man, and Jack couldn’t leave his friend behind. No civilians on active cases; that seemed a good addition to the Spirelli handbook right about now. Then it occurred to Jack that the sound of Nate’s thick leathery wings beating in the air was growing quieter. He glanced up to see Nate’s naked wrinkled buttocks. The leathery skin of his legs turned to talons where his feet should have been. The sight was grotesque, so obscene he seemed almost like a caricature of a devilish creature.
Damn, he was turning around for a second run.
Don’t let go of Kaisermann.
Marin’s voice appeared in his head. Jack searched for her, scanned the area near the SUV twice, but nothing. Hard to believe he’d lost track of an elephant-sized scaly beast. Then on the third attempt, he saw the shimmer, like heated air rising off asphalt on a Texas summer day. She’d camouflaged herself, an excellent skill hampered only by the telltale shimmer when she moved.
Jack! You need to hold on to Kaisermann. I think Sally’s found a way to protect him.
Which explained Nate’s failed attack.
This time when Nate dove for them with his talons extended, Jack didn’t duck his head. He again shielded Kaisermann, and watched in fascination as Nate’s talons sparked and skidded across a surface that wasn’t really there. Now that was a cool forcefield.
Nate must have figured it out, because he didn’t turn for another run at them. Instead, he turned back to the car.
Marin’s silvery, iridescent scales worked by reflecting back what was around her. She didn’t actually disappear. And Jack could see now what her destination had been when she’d been on the move before. She’d placed herself in between Nate and the two women who were still inside the car.
What were they doing in there? And what the hell was Marin thinking? Nate would shred her semi-soft baby-dragon scales.
“How are we still alive?” Kaisermann whispered in his ear.
Jack had forgotten that Marin’s words hadn’t been spoken aloud. “Marin thinks it might be Sally.”
With a furrow etched into his forehead, Kaisermann said, “I don’t understand. That’s not—”
“Trust me. Marin’s usually right. A sickeningly large amount of the time, in fact.” Jack kept an arm wrapped around his friend’s shoulders and encouraged him to stand. “Can you walk with me? I have no idea how far your protection will extend, but I don’t know what else we can do.”
Kaisermann’s eyes bugged out, followed by a shrill howl—thankfully not from Kaisermann.
“What the hell was that?”
Kaisermann’s eyes were still huge. “She steamed him.”
“What?—Oh.” Jack winced. He wished all things bad on Nate, but ouch. Jack looked for Nate’s dark form and found him skulking out of par-boil range. “That wicked clever girl.”
I heard that. It won’t keep him for long. It’s not damaging him, just causing pain.
“Yeah, that’s too bad. How are the ladies in the car?” Jack asked. When he saw Kaisermann eyeing him oddly, he said, “I’m talking to Marin. She’s got excellent hearing…and, ah, mind-speaking, a kind of dragon telepathy.”
“Ah.”
Iris is hunting inner peace.
“What the hell are you talking about? What does inner piece have to do with the anything? And where is Grandma Abi? Have we already exhausted her time on this plane?” Jack started toward the SUV again, walking slowly and keeping Kaisermann close.
“Grandma Abi is recruiting on the other side,” Kaisermann said.
Jack paused, then picked up the pace. “I really don’t think I’ll ever sleep again. What else did you guys discuss while I was out?”
“Nothing to do with inner peace, if that makes you feel better.” Kaisermann’s eyes twinkled with mirth.
“Glad you’re getting some entertainment out of this, buddy. Iris is obsessing over inner peace, hence my curiosity.”
She needs to find inner peace so she can use her medium skills, basically, act as a beacon for any of the souls that Grandma Abi recruits. Pressure does not help.
“Well, hell. Why didn’t you say so?” Jack leaned close to Kaisermann and whispered in his ear, “Trust me. We’re helping, not running.” Then he turned them away from the SUV. In a normal tone of voice, Jack said, “So leathery bald guy, I see why you dig that young guy’s body. He’s much better-looking than you.”
As he and Kaisermann had started to move away from the SUV, Nate had tracked them and was starting to close the distance. In a deep, mellow, and under other circumstances likely charming voice, Nate said, “Humans are walking pieces of meat. There is nothing attractive in your flightless form and your thin vulnerable skin. Even your bones break like twigs.”
“Why bother assuming one of our useless forms if you find them so offensive?” Jack asked, as he continued to walk away from the SUV. If increasing the distance between leather-butt Nate and Iris didn’t diminish the pressure on her, he wasn’t sure what else would.
“Like the cattle you are, humans scatter when frightened. Better to keep the herd calm and feast as I desire.” Nate was now closing the distance between the three of them. He couldn’t claw them, so what exactly was his plan? Jack was sure he had one.
“What was with the liver in the herbalist’s pantry?”
“A gift to the beast before I slay her.” From Nate’s tone, Jack could guess that Marin had been spot on with the ego assessment. This guy’s was epic. Giving his worthiest—and yet still subpar—competition a last meal. “I found the gesture generous. Liver is, after all, the tastiest part.”
Jack was getting pretty damn nervous. The guy was close. From fifteen feet away, Jack could easily see Nate’s eyes were red. It was more than a little disconcerting. He had to search for something—anything—to say. He had to keep the attention on them. “If the liver is so tasty, why eat the heart first?”
“Oh, but that would be telling, and that secret is mine to keep.” Nate was ten feet away.
Kaisermann stood up very straight under Jack’s arm and said, “Stealing the heart while it still beats traps the essence of the form. Consuming it allows you to assume that form.”
No poker with Kaisermann in the future; the guy could bluff with the best of them. The conviction in his voice would have fooled Jack, but he knew Kaisermann didn’t have any more of a clue than the rest of them.
Nate looked pissed. He still had vaguely human features and showed emotion much like a human, but that emotion looked overdone and silly on him. “You’re not so very clever, caretaker. It’s the beast who protects that has shared that knowledge.”
Whoa, what? Since when did Kaisermann and Sally actually speak? Jack didn’t have time to ponder the conundrum of Sally and Kaisermann’s relationship. Nate was rushing them.
He wasn’t fast, but he was solid. And he wasn’t planning to use his talons.
Shit. Too late Jack recognized the creature’s strategy. With all the force he could muster, Nate rammed them.