Page 65 of Bizarre Bonds
As that unnerving thought shudders through my mind, a twinge of a different sort of discomfort touches my fae senses. Like a forest creature caught in a trap… except there’s no forest here, not really.
My head swivels toward the impression instinctively. With a few steps, the tug gets stronger.
Some part of the natural world has been disrupted. I can feel it the same way I picked up on the mindless aggression of the shadowkind Peri’s sorcerer sent to attack us weeks ago.
I don’t like the idea of explaining my fae awareness to the others or looping them in on my private quest. Without glancing back, I call over a vague remark. “I’m going to check something out. I won’t go far.”
Raze lets out a huff. “I don’t think that’s a good?—”
There’s a rustle that I think is the shifting of Peri’s leather jacket over her dress as she grasps his arm. “It’s fine. Maybe Hail will notice something the rest of us wouldn’t. There’s no reason we have to doeverythingtogether.”
“Thanks, Cream Puff!” I toss out.
The words come out more mocking than I meant them. Idoappreciate her offering me my space—but it also gnaws at me that she thinks she needs to defend me.
My resentment isn’t really her fault, though.
I stalk out of my teammates’ view as quickly as I can, shedding the sense of their curious—and probably wary—gazes following me. The faint pulsing of Peri’s concern clings on through the glowing spot on my chest that I can’t tune out.
I ignore it as well as I can and focus on the prickle of distress I caught. There’s a creature in trouble somewhere nearby… Maybe more than one creature?
I veer down an alley that runs between the backs of the buildings to allow deliveries and other vehicle access. As I come up on the wrecked stores, my steps slow.
A small, furry figure squirms beneath the rubble. Plumes of smoky essence streak up toward the darkening sky.
My heart lurches. It’s not just a creature but a shadowkind being—a lesser one, but that doesn’t mean it deserves to be in pain. And it must be in a lot if it can’t concentrate well enough to escape into the shadows.
A recent memory twists my gut. Am I going to have to freeze it out of its misery—and its entire life—like I did those strange creatures that jumbled together?
Fuck, I hope not.
As I hurry over with a lump in my throat, a plaintive mew reaches my ears from elsewhere in the rubble. Thereisanother creature trapped here.
I work quickly, tugging at the chunks of brick and concrete until I uncover the first. The shadowkind creature looks mostly cat-like other than a pair of gills that flap open for it to breathe, hidden beneath its shaggy gray fur. Or at least I assume it’ll look cat-like when it isn’t pouring out essence from several slashes in its lean body.
A blow from a chunk of concrete wouldn’t have dealt those narrow wounds. It wasn’t only injured by the falling rubble.
The rogue shadowkind must have hit it with her claws or her wild power before the collapse.
Why would she hurt a little shadowkind being?
I scoop it up in my hands and press my fingers to the wounds. To my relief, I can tell the creature isn’t too far gone to be healed.
I can save this being even if I couldn’t the others earlier this evening.
Steadying my mind, I summon my icy power. Ever so carefully, I exude the chill into the creature—just enough to seal the flesh and stop the worst of the bleeding.
“Come with me,” I murmur to it, as if I’m going to give it a choice, and carry it into the shadows.
As the darkness at the edge of the alley closes around us, the creature gives a little shake and seems to perk up. In the shadows, its wounds close even more quickly. I can feel its essence binding together into a more cohesive form.
After a matter of minutes, it squirms as if trying to crawl out of my arms back toward the heap of rubble. Another of those pitiful mews reaches my ears.
“Fine,” I tell it, and pull us back into corporeal form. The shadowkind creature leaps out of my hold and scampers to a trash bin that’s partly crushed, its lid held down by a few fallen bricks.
I knock those aside and open the lid to find an actual cat—mortal and bleeding crimson liquid from a shallow cut on its hind leg.
The shadowkind sort-of cat makes an urgent yipping sound. I lift out the mortal cat and set my hand against its wound.
