Page 49 of Bizarre Bonds
Even if that means we have to lie to them to keep the peace. A man in a hoodie ducks out of the steps leading from a second-floor apartment, and I spring into damage-control mode.
“Gosh, I can’t believe the police still haven’t caught this terrorist gang,” I say, just loud enough for my voice to carry. “Our fellow humans can be so mean. Hopefully the cops will track the bad guys down soon!”
Mirage beams in a way that doesn’t fit our topic of conversation at all, joining in my charade. “Catch them and send them all to jail. That’s what they deserve! Vicious vandals—gotta see them handled.”
One of the other shadowblood men, a guy with pale hair and a permanent scowl, gives a slightly choked sound. His voicecomes out in a low mutter. “We’re not supposed to compose poetry about the ‘terrorists.’”
The hoodie man has already disappeared down the street. I don’t think he looked at us too oddly.
A flicker of embarrassment passes over my hair all the same. I tug my own hood lower.
Riva bumps her shoulder against mine and catches Mirage’s eye. “Maybe we just sound a little less cheerful about it next time? You’ll get better with practice.”
Her blond partner kicks at a broken headlight lying on the ground. “All we need is to get our hands on this psycho shadowkindonce, and then there won’t be any more craziness to explain. We know how to tackle beings that are fucking around.”
Riva shoots him a look that’s as fond as it is exasperated. “We’ve mostly faced off with other shadowbloods, Jake. It’s always harder with shadowkind when they can slip away so quickly.”
“We have a better idea of what we’re doing now. It shouldn’t be that hard. As soon as we can get to the same place she is.”
Hail aims a glower at Jonah. “Can’t you summon her to do your bidding the way you did when you dragged us off to the school?”
From the tang of uncomfortable emotion that passes from him to me, Jonah has just suppressed a wince. “I’ll try again. When I can’t focus on her exact location to aim my sorcery directly at her, all I can do is put out a general call. So far that’s only brought in a bunch of beings who had nothing to do with her. Either she’s heading far enough away in between outbursts that she isn’t in range… or like the other beings from these new rifts, my sorcery doesn’t work as well on her as it usually would.”
I think back to our encounters with the lesser beings who’ve come through the odd rifts. “Have you seen any reason why they’re less affected?”
Our sorcerer spreads his hands. “Nothing definite. It could be the morphing—that sets every part of them off-kilter, so however my magic would normally affect them, it can’t quite grip on the same way it would with a normal shadowkind. Or maybe there’s something different enough to make them not quite a shadowkind. I can’t use sorcery on a human being or a mortal animal at all. At least it does work with these ones some, just not as easily.”
That makes sense. There’s got to be another strategy.
I reach out to Raze, tucking my hand around his elbow. “Does she leave enough of a scent for you to track her? You’ve been so good at that in the past.”
The basilisk shifter aims a grateful smile at me for the recognition, but the shake of his head is all resigned disappointment. “She moves too fast. The trail fades in the shadows.”
Mirage gives me a tentative poke on the arm. “You can sense emotions even in the shadows, can’t you? And the strange beings have different kinds of feelings from regular ones.”
I pause. “They do. I don’t know… I guess I could hurry through the streets in the shadows and see if I can pick up on any feelings that seem to be coming from her. I think I could recognize her. But what would I do then?”
“That’s perfect!” Riva digs into her pocket and tosses me a phone. “If you keep that in your clothes, it should travel with you into the shadows. All my guys’ numbers are programmed in. If you can figure out where she’s hiding, just switch to physical form and text us the nearest address. We’ll catch up and follow her from there, maybe even force her out of the shadows before she’s on the attack.”
Raze’s forehead furrows. “We should go with her. This being is dangerous.”
My nerves are jittering, but I know the right answer to that question. “I’ll have an easier time avoiding notice if I’m by myself. If she senses a being who gives off an aura of power, she’ll probably leave before we can get close. You can roam around so you stay close enough that we won’t end up in pain, but I think you should give me as much room as possible.”
Jonah’s mouth has tightened, but he nods. “So far this rogue shadowkind has only attacked parts of the mortal world. We haven’t seen any reason to believe she’d harm a fellow shadowkind who isn’t posing a threat.”
That’s me—totally not at all threatening. I can put my cream-puff exterior to good use.
I suck in a breath and slide the phone into the pocket of my leather jacket. “All right. I’ll travel through the whole city checking for her presence and let you know as soon as I stumble on her.”
I leap into the shadows before anyone can say anything else, because if one more doubt is raised, I might lose my nerve.
I still don’t understand why any shadowkind would act so horribly.
Maybe I’ll get the chance to find out, if I can findher.
As I flit through the darkened streets, I think back to our first encounter with the crocodile-tailed being. To the sickly sense of satisfaction that accompanied the shadowkind woman’s feats of destruction.
It reminds me a little of the sorcerer who held me captive—who tortured me to aim my own destructive powers at people he wanted to hurt.
