“ALEX?” I WHISPERED his name knowing he would hear me. How he got out of the veil I didn’t care, only that he was here, and I could have him back in my life.
Those golden eyes swung my way. “Lady, if you are screwing with me I will scratch your blasted eyes out and shit in the holes.”
The man holding the cage gave it a shake. “Shut up, Nigel. If I have to tell you again I’ll cut your tongue out.”
Not Alex in the cage. Of course, it wasn’t. But still . . . It was obvious that whatever kind of creature was attached to the golden eyes needed help. I caught up to the man holding the cage and took his arm. “Sir, I need to speak with you.”
“I’ve got all my paperwork.” He calmly produced and flapped a sheaf of papers in my face. He had dark auburn hair, so dark it almost was black in the shadows. Japanese features smiled at me. I forced a smile back. I would bet my last knife this was Ito. Lady luck was finally on my side.
“This way.”
He put on the brakes as I dragged him toward the door Cactus and I had just exited from. “You aren’t a TSA agent.”
“Special clearance.” I flicked my badge and continued to drag him. He could dig his heels in all he liked, he was coming with me one way or another. And I was betting he didn’t want a scene in public. He relaxed and let me propel him forward. Bingo.
I handed Cactus the badge and he opened the door, suddenly on my side. He even held the door open for me. I pushed the passenger through ahead of me, hard enough that he stumbled, but he never complained, unlike most people would have. Of course, he was trying to fly, literally, under the radar.
Cactus whispered as I went by.
“Lizard.”
I didn’t slow my feet. I’d already come to that very conclusion. “I know.”
Simply put, the smell on him was faint but the hint of smoke and charred things could only mean one thing—Salamander. This was Ito. I was sure of it. The description fit and combined with what I was picking up, it could only be him. Camos was obviously an idiot. Or he had no sense of smell.
The guy I thought was Ito glanced back. I smiled at him but kept my lips shut tightly. No need to tip him off to what I was. I continued to push him ahead of me and then to the left into the conference room.
“I really don’t see why this is necessary. I have all the paperwork for me and my dog.”
“I’m not a dog, you douche waffle. I’m going to bite your balls off and eat them for breakfast when I get out of here,” snapped the creature from the cage--Nigel, if what the Salamander had said earlier was correct.
The man’s pale yellow eyes set into an olive skinned face watched me carefully. But he didn’t seem particularly worried. I didn’t smell a single drop of fear rolling from him. Any human would have been shaking in their boots even if they had nothing to hide. And I was quite sure this lizard had something to hide. I pointed to a chair.
“Sit.”
Cactus came in behind me and the Salamander glanced at him, looked down and then his eyes snapped back up. “Cactus?”
“Ito?” Cactus breathed out. “I thought you were banished?”
Ohh, now we were getting somewhere.
Ito’s mouth thinned to a hard line. “And I thought you were banished too. Apparently, we were both wrong.”
“What I want to know,” I moved so I blocked the view between the two men, “is what you have in that cage there, and why you are holding him against his will.”
Ito smiled, oozing charm. “Beautiful lady, I am bringing my sole companion with me. Who happens to be a dog, that is the whole story, I promise you.”
I smiled back at him. “Bullshit. Now tell me the truth or I’ll let him out and he can eat your balls with my blessing.”
Ito’s face paled. “You can hear him? You aren’t an Elemental.”
My grin widened until I was sure he could see my fangs. “No, I’m a special snowflake, sweetheart. ”
He scrambled back and I was across the table, not really thinking, just chasing the prey that moved to escape me. My predatory instincts took over and it was all I could do not to sink my teeth into him. The whole chase and eat thing was a bit much, but that’s what I had to learn to fight.
Ito’s hands flew toward my face, the color in them looking distinctly like an open flame. Not a good thing for me on any day. I flipped him over and shoved both his hands under his crotch. “There we go, fire away. Now. What’s in the cage?”
“I could answer that for you.”
With Ito pinned to the floor, I turned to look at the creature. “All right then. What are you?’
“I’m a familiar.”
I shrugged. “That could mean a whole hell of a lot of things. Are you a dog?”
“No,” he yipped.
“Fox?”
“I’m not a blinking fox, fang face!”
“Why are you making me guess then?” I yelled at him. “Just spit it the fuck out!”
The golden eyes narrowed. “I’m a black-backed jackal.”
I leaned off Ito and he used it against me. With a thrust of his hips, he threw me off. Damn Elementals and their strength; they could match a vampire any day.
“FUCK.” I crashed into the wall, landing with one hand twisted hard under me. The bone snapped and pain soared through me, momentarily blinding me. I rolled and put the bone back in place. The pain eased and in seconds the injury was healing.
Score another one for being a vampire with super healing abilities.
“Not so tough, are you?”
I blinked to see Ito standing over me. Cactus was against the far wall, shaking his head.
“Cactus—”
“I want to help, something is stopping me.” His hands were on his head as though he was indeed struggling with something. Shit, his timing to suddenly go on the fritz couldn’t have been worse.
“I can help.” This from the creature in the cage. Right beside my head.
Why did I get a feeling this was a bad idea? No time to second-guess, though. I rolled as Ito fired a ball of flame where I’d lain. I grabbed the cage with both hands and ripped it open, the plastic cracking under my fingers as if it were nothing. Out streaked a tan and black dog, its body no bigger than an average sized mutt. The blur launched itself at Ito and the Salamander shrieked as he went down under the snapping and snarling of the really not very big animal.
“Nigel, off. Down. Whatever you need, just stop. I need to talk to him.” I pushed to my feet but Nigel the mutt did not listen.
“You son of a dirty bitch! I’m going to kill you!” Nigel snarled, latching onto Ito’s crotch.
Ito squealed like a stuck pig. I grabbed the long bushy tail that belonged to Nigel and pulled him upward before he could get a good hold on the Salamander. He swung around and clamped his teeth on my upper thigh.
I grunted but refused to scream. “Let go, or I’ll remove you from my leg like I released you from that cage, you ungrateful little fucker.”
Those golden eyes glittered with hatred, and I glared right back. “Now.”
His mouth popped open. “Pushy wench, put me down.”
I held him over Ito and finally looked down at the trembling fire Elemental. “Should I put him down?”
“No, no. Keep him off me,” he whimpered, his hands over his crotch.
I didn’t take my eyes from him. “Cactus? How are you feeling?”
“I don’t know.”
Great. Some help he was. “Okay, here’s how it’s going to go. Ito, you’re going to tell me what you know about the trafficking of human girls into your world,” Cactus sucked in a breath as if I’d sucker punched him again, “and also about this wild creature here and just why you were dognapping him.”
“I’m not a dog, you stupid blood sucker!”
I kept Nigel aloft and at the far end of my reach, which also placed him right over Ito’s head. Ito swallowed hard. Blood fell in steady drops from the bite marks on his face and neck. I realized how close it had been when I saw the imprints of canine teeth near his jugular. And how hard I sucked in the air to get a taste of what he was made of. “Hurry it up, or I’ll let him at your balls while I take your throat.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ito said, swallowing hard.
I lowered Nigel, and someone banged on the door. Fuck, the timing today seriously couldn’t be worse.
“We’re in a meeting,” I yelled without taking my eyes from Ito.
The sounds of three sets of boots busted through the door. I was betting on TSA agents. “We heard screaming . . .” one of them said.
I really looked at the scene, the blood, the man on the floor, the crazed dog hanging by its tail. There was no way they were going to believe it, but I tired anyway.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I said. Cactus laughed, but there was a hollow echo in it. I had to admit, it wasn’t the best line I’d ever had.
Maybe I could smooth things over. “Look, he’s resisting arrest and trafficking animals.”
Then again, maybe not. All three agents pulled their weapons. I had a split second to decide what the fuck I was going to do.
I dropped Nigel who landed on Ito with a great grin on his canine muzzle. “So we meet again, Ito.”
I leapt across the table with my arms spread wide as if I were trying to fly. The move effectively took down all three of them in a single blow, like bowling for law enforcement. They hit the ground, yelling and scrabbling to get back to their feet. I grabbed Cactus. “Nigel, you coming?”
“Shit, I don’t have a choice, do I?” He leapt onto the table and looked around.
“Not really.”
I bolted down the carpeted hall, away from the main exit that would take us into the airport proper.
“Wrong way!” Cactus said.
“No, I don’t want to go that way.” I jerked him with me, keeping his feet moving.
“Why?”
I pointed at the bright red EXIT sign over the door we approached. “Emergency hallways almost always have an exit straight outside at some point.” At least that was what I was hoping. I hit the door hard, and it flung open as an alarm went off. The screeching alarm made me grit my teeth. It felt like sticks piercing my eardrums, it was so loud.
We were in a concrete hallway. I raced through it, knowing that if I just kept heading for the exit signs, eventually we would be out of the main building. Down two flights of stairs, I stopped in front of another door. “Fingers crossed this is it.”
I pushed the bar on the door with the Exit sign above it.
A snap of fresh air gusted through the door. Damn, I was good. “We’re out,” I said.
Kind of. We were in an underground garage half full of cars. Nigel shot past me. “Sayonara, losers.”
That’s what he thought. I reached out as he passed me and grabbed his tail, swinging him into the air one more time. “I don’t think so. I lost Ito and still need answers. Which means you’re up to bat, dog.”
He swung around and his teeth sunk into my forearm with a growl. “I’m not a bat dog. I’m a jackal.” At least that’s what I think he said around a mouthful of my arm.
I bared my teeth at him as I lifted him to eye level. “You think the good agents behind us want to capture you or shoot you? And darling, when it comes to teeth, I win hands down, so I suggest you stop biting me unless you want me to make you my next meal.”
He muffled something around my arm and then let go. “I think I might hate you.”
I dropped him and he glared up at me, his gold eyes crackling with emotion.
“You’re with us until we get out of here,” I said. “I’ll get my answers then you can pee on whatever fire hydrant you want.”
“I don’t pee on fire hydrants,” he said.
“Whatever, you get my point.”
I looked around, trying to figure out which way was out. Damn underground parking lots where like a labyrinth made to keep people trapped in their cars for years. Never mind being on foot. “Come on, we don’t have a lot of time before we’ve got uglies on our asses.”
The thing was, I really expected TSA agents to follow us. They didn’t which probably wasn’t good for them.
However, Ito did follow us, and he was royally pissed if the size of his fire he threw at us was any indication. The heavy steel door behind us blew off its hinges, and a curl of flame wrapped out in an impressive twenty-foot arc that kissed the back of my heels. The door skidded like a giant sled across the cement, rattling and humming.
I dove forward, somersaulting twice before I was up and running again. Fireballs flew to my left and right, effectively driving me toward a dead end. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Being flammable had never been such an issue before, not that being hit with fire as a Tracker would have been that much better. But now my skin was as flammable as any piece of paper. Not a good combo when I was being corralled with that shit.
I had no desire to find out just how quickly I’d go up in flames.
A fireball shot past my left leg, and my jean pant leg caught on fire. I didn’t even think, I just slapped at the flames with my bare hands. The pain was instant and as intense as if I’d pressed my palm against a hot stove element and held it there. “Shit bitches!” I dove to the ground and rolled, which put the flames out. From my back, I watch as a wave of flame crackled through the air swimming toward me in an undulating movement, like an ocean wave.
Three feet across and two feet deep it curved and shimmered as though it were alive. I stared, horrified as a pair of eyes stared back at me. A triangular head emerged from the flame and a long tongue flicked out between fangs easily twelve inches long. Fire snake . . . was it an apparition or an actual creature? Fucked if I knew.
Nigel slammed into me from one side, stumbling and falling into my lap so he was on his back looking up at me. I glanced in the direction he’d come from. A second fire snake hovered in the air, hissing as it shimmered. Two for the price of one. Just fucking awesome.
“I suggest we work together,” he panted. “Until we get out of here.”
I snorted as I glanced around for Cactus. Where the hell was he anyway? “Suddenly friends?”
“The enemy of my enemy is a friend. Or something like that.” He twisted out of my lap and we both backed as the snakes advanced. “Only way to stop them is to put Ito out of commission.”
De-limbing or beheading had always been an effective way to slow people down. I didn’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work this time around either. But getting close to the Salamander was going to be the issue. A plan formed, fast and not completely thought through, but it was all I had.
“Think you can get both snakes following you?”
Nigel let out a yip and bolted forward at the one snake. It lunged toward him and he veered hard to the right, barely avoiding it as he ran in the direction of the second snake. They shot at him at the same time and I took the opening, running through the pocket he’d created.
I pulled one sword as I ran, my other hand still throbbed like a son of a bitch in heat. My footsteps echoed in the underground parking lot and I cringed. I could soften them, but I had to concentrate on what I was doing. I slowed and made myself ease the placement of each foot until the sound was gone, then again picked up speed while still being silent as a stealthy ninja.
I ran from pillar to pillar, looking around each before going to the next. Voices rising in anger in the distance called to me. Cactus and Ito having a chat by the sounds of it.
The way the words bounced in the underground parking lot, I almost went right past them, thinking they were further away than they actually were.
I closed the gap between us until twenty feet away. I leaned into the pillar and waited for the right moment to make my presence noticed.
“You messed up, Cactus. You should never have left,” Ito growled. “Fiametta was going to train you to be a thief like me. You could have had everything you ever wanted. But you had to side with that dirt girl, Lark.”
Cactus groaned and I snuck a look. He was propped up against a pillar just like mine, bent at the waist. Injured? But was that possible with—
Ito held a gun up, a silencer on the tip. “Pity, I thought you might take over my route. I’m getting tired of transporting shits like Nigel.” He rubbed at his neck and the marks there as he pointed the gun at Cactus with his other hand, aiming right between his eyes. Now or never.
I raced forward, putting all the effort I could into my speed. The world blurred and before I could blink, I was behind Ito, swinging my sword at his one leg. Except the force took my blade, not through one, but both limbs. De-limbing at its best.
For a split second, he hovered in the air, legs missing from mid-thigh down before gravity caught up to my speed and he crashed to the ground, blood pouring from the wounds. The smell caught me off guard and I dropped to my knees, mouth open and saliva washing over my tongue. It took everything I had to not lay down and roll in the blood, to lap it up as though I were a wolf dying of thirst at a river’s edge. “Cactus . . .” I managed to bite the words out, “cauterize his legs before I drain him.”
Cactus went to his knees beside me and put a hand on each stump. “This is going to hurt; when we burn it ain’t nice, Rylee.”
“Do it, or he’ll die and we need him for answers.”
Ito was unconscious already, I doubted that would change. Apparently I was wrong about that tiny fact.
Cactus’s hands glowed bright red and Ito sat up, screaming. I was on him in a flash, clamping my hand over his mouth. Not that I thought we couldn’t handle a human or two, but we’d already been pushing the limits with this underground battle. His scream heated my good hand and for a second, I thought maybe he could spit fire. I hoped to hell that wasn’t the case.
“All done.” Cactus withdrew his hands and pressed one to his side. “I can’t believe it, he shot me.”
Ito slumped, truly out this time and I took a look at his stumps for legs. They were charred and black, cut off just above the knee, but there really wasn’t that much blood. Or at least not enough that he would die. Again, I was hoping, but I had no real idea.
I spared Cactus a glance. “In the side?”
He grimaced and gave me a nod. “Yeah. It hurts, bad.”
I leaned over and pulled up is shirt while I held my breath against yet more fresh blood. “You were grazed, the skin and muscle were the only things hit. You were lucky. Another inch to the right, he would have had your liver leaking all over the floor, and I’m not sure even you could heal from that kind of a wound.”
He paled and sat back. “Shit.”
I didn’t wait for Ito to wake. I flipped him over so he was face down and pulled his hands back. A soft yip turned my head around. “Nigel, you okay?”
“Better than him,” he grumped as he trotted, limping, up to my other side. A portion of the fur on his right side where the tan hair was had been charred as black as the stripe on his back. He sat down beside me. “You want to use something metallic and magic to bind his hands. My cage would do the trick.”
I frowned. “Your cage is—”
“Right over there. He brought it with him. Probably thought he’d get me back in there, stupid idiot that he is.” Nigel yawned, his jaws cracking wide and I got a waft of doggy breath. Gross.
I turned away and looked at the cage. Just how was I going to use his cage as a form of restraint? Though I’d cut both Ito’s legs off, I wasn’t sure he’d fit in the cage. Then again, it might be worth trying . . . I stood and walked to the door that had been blown off. No alarms were sounding, the one that we’d set to raging had stopped somewhere in the middle of the fight. Which was odd.
The hair along the back of my neck prickled. No alarms? Humans loved their alarms, loved the blaring noise to indicate something was wrong. Blowing a door clean away from its hinges was about as wrong as you could get when it came to their world. And it had happened a good ten minutes before, plenty of time to get more TSA agents down to the underground parking lot.
I bent and grabbed the cage and took it back with me, jogging the whole way. I tossed it to Cactus. “Here, you carry this. It’ll take your mind off the pain.”
Nigel yawned again, stood and shook his whole body. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”
I removed my belt and looped my whip over my shoulder. Cactus gave me a cheeky grin, even though there was still pain in his eyes. “Striptease?”
“In your dreams.” I bent and bound Ito’s hands behind his back.
Nigel barked at me. “I told you that wouldn’t work. Are you deaf or just damn stupid, blood sucker?”
“Neither, mutt,” I said and Nigel spluttered but I ignored his protests. “I can’t interrogate him here. Something is wrong. No alarm, no humans. Probably means only one thing.”
Cactus groaned. “Don’t say it. Please tell me you aren’t going to say it.”
I smiled, but even I knew it was anything but comforting. “Trouble is on its way.”
