Page 43 of Shadow Warrior
Kash rubbed his hands together and looked down at his amulet. There was a pinprick of light in the center. “Shit, yes. The connection is weak.”
“Now that you’ve confirmed that fact …” Larkin waved a paw at the door.
“Of course,” Kash said with an amused smile. “Lucky I tagged along.”
Larkin waved a hand. “Pfft, if you’d decided not to come, I’d have slipped us in, but I’d rather conserve my energy for the big stuff. Moving two entities through realities is hard enough; moving three will be a challenge I’ll need a full battery for.”
Kash smirked and climbed the steps. “Move aside, and let the master do his thing.”
Larkin rolled his eyes but obliged.
We gathered on the porch, and Kash crouched and set to work.
There was an eerie scream, and then boot falls echoed through the night behind us.
“Get back.” Larkin dragged us into the shadows. “Hush.”
A man ran into view, clutching his abdomen. His face was pale, hair sticking to his forehead with sweat. He looked over his shoulder, stumbled, and fell to the ground.
“Shit.” I made to step out of the shadows, but Larkin gripped my wrist.
“No,” he said. “You can’t be seen. This may be part of the main storyline.”
A figure loped toward the man. Hunched over, naked, and gnarled with impossibly long talon-tipped fingers. It was hairless, and its eyes were blood red. It opened its mouth, showcasing elongated fangs, and emitted the eerie screech we’d heard a moment ago.
“No. Please.” The man held up his hands. “Please, don’t hurt me.”
Fuck this. “We have to do something.”
“We can’t,” Larkin snapped.
“This isn’t just a fucking show, it’s real. These people are real, and if he dies, he dies for fucking real.” I pulled out of his grasp and was almost at the steps, almost out of the cover of shadows, when there was a low whistling sound, and the monster jerked, threw back its head, and screamed.
Shit, I’d be screaming too if I had an arrow protruding from my heart. The monster convulsed. His body shimmered and changed from a naked, hairless, and ugly creature to a non-descript Caucasian male. Blood spurted from his mouth, and then he keeled over onto his back and lay still.
The wounded man the monster had been about to attack sobbed in relief as several figures joined him. A slender, raven-haired female, a male wearing a black beanie, and a tall, powerfully built man with golden hair and gray eyes. My pulse jumped in my throat.
“Payne?” His name slipped from my lips.
Payne’s head whipped up as if he’d heard me, which was impossible, as we were too far away.
And then the beanie guy was helping the wounded, quivering man up. The dark-haired chick kicked the dead monster in the ribs. He now looked like an average guy with an arrow in his heart.
I knew her. Trinity Lane. The principal’s daughter. But what was she doing with Payne?
“Fucking suckers,” the beanie dude said. “How many more do you think there are, Payne?”
Payne shook his head. “They move in nests, so where there’s one, there’ll be more. We should head back to base and regroup.”
Trinity nodded. “Whatever you say, boss.”
The beanie guy pulled a vial from his pocket, uncapped it, and sprinkled something over the dead monster. There was a fizzing sound, and then the body disintegrated into ash and floated away.
“We need to regroup,” Trinity said. “Get a handle on this.”
They retreated, taking the wounded man with them.
My heart was pounding hard. Suckers. Bloodsuckers … nightblood? That thing had been a fucking nightblood, or this reality’s version of one anyway.
