Shadow Borne Read online

  Well, there was no help for it. I would just have to change clothes and clean up a little before going outside and jumping the fence. I thought I glimpsed a slight movement out the window then and went for my knife, just in case. Maybe taking the time to change in the house wasn't the best idea, under the circumstances. Maybe I'd be better off grabbing an extra outfit, the jug of river water I kept in the bathroom, and a rag. I could hop the fence and clean up outside once I was safe and sound on the protected side of the fence.

  I'd retrieved the clothes, water and a blanket, and was in the process of hefting the burlap sack over one shoulder when the faint rustling sound came from the door. Dropping the sack and the jug, I immediately went into a defensive crouch as, with a pop and a click, the knob turned and the door was flung open. No, no not another one. A tall dark shape filled the doorway and with deadly aim and a flick of the wrist, I let the knife fly.

  Chapter Five

  Nightmare

  "Aranu!" I screamed an instant after I'd already thrown the knife. There was nothing to do but watch in horror as the blade hurtled dead center toward his face. At the last second, just before the knife would have embedded itself into his flesh, he twisted to the side and the weapon flew past him, out the open door. It clattered into the dirt beside my scraggly looking flowerbeds and I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't just managed to inadvertently kill one of my oldest friends.

  I sagged over a kitchen chair, breathing heavily while I waited for my racing heart to slow. The adrenaline crash left me feeling weak, spent. "I'm so sorry." I gasped, shoving ropes of black hair out of my face and finally pushing away from the chair to face him. "Nice reflexes. It's a good thing, huh?" I smiled weakly.

  Aranu had remained standing in the doorway, not moving a muscle but quietly assessing the situation inside my house. His eyes traveled past me to the kitchenette area of the minuscule kitchen/dining combo, to the broken window and black splatters and stains, down to the burlap sack just beyond my feet. He seemed to take the scene in before finally he glanced back at me. "And here I thought I was coming to save you."

  "You're a few minutes late, I'm afraid." I smiled ruefully and bent to retrieve the sack from where I'd dropped it, intending to ask Aranu what he was doing here, how he'd known I had been in trouble. Not that I was overly concerned about getting bogged down in the details. I probably should have been but truthfully I was just grateful to not be alone right then; the why's and how's of it almost didn't matter.

  "I was on my way home from patrol and noticed the broken window. I could see you were kneeling on the floor so I stopped in." He answered my unspoken question. "I was going to rescue you." He shrugged, a hint of a smile touching his lips in the dimly lit room.

  "Hey, yeah," I hefted the bag over one shoulder, remembering the series of clicks I'd heard in the seconds before Aranu had pulled a he-man on my door. "How did you get in? Not that I'm not appreciative." I added, loathe to appear ungrateful, especially after I'd jumped all over him earlier.

  Aranu reached into some hidden inner pocket of his leather vest and pulled out a pair of silver picks, neither of the instruments was much longer than the width of his palm; one was a little thicker and shorter than the other.

  "Oh. Well, that answers my question then. Like I said, you missed the action by a good ten minutes, but I could use a hand getting this stuff outside." And I could use the company. "It's a dead Coatyl." I added as an afterthought. It was probably bad etiquette to hand someone a dead body without telling them first.

  "Sure thing." he said easily and plucked the awkward sack from my arms. He slung it over his own shoulder with ridiculous ease. "But I wouldn't be so hasty in saying I'm too late to save you. Not that you need the help," he was quick to add, "but there's another Coatyl outside."

  "Damn." I slammed a fist against the table and snatched up my spare clothes, blanket, and jug of water. Great. That was just great.

  "So we kill it. Easy." Aranu started toward the door. "They're getting bold." He glanced back with a frown at the damage in the room. And suddenly I remembered the most shattering development of the night and that I had to tell him before he walked out the door.

  "Aranu, wait!" He paused at the threshold and swiveled his head toward the middle of the room, where I had once again plunked my bags down, this time on the table though, instead of the floor. "The Coatyl–at least I think it's all of the Coatyl–aren't just getting bold. They've been...altered." I said, for lack of a better word. "They're talking. Well, this one spoke to me, anyway. He was able to think for himself, too." I added.

  Aranu shifted the burden from his right shoulder to his left and cocked his head to the side. "What did it say to you?"

  That was so like Aranu. No visible surprise in his hard face. I couldn't say for sure if he was shocked or not at the bombshell I'd just unloaded on him but at a guess I'd have had to say no. He didn't look overly traumatized at the prospect of an army of mutated Coatyl running amok in Terlain, in the woods around Grandview where damn near everyone we knew made their homes. No cursing-and I knew for a fact that he'd picked up a few choice additions to his vocabulary from hanging around me. No grimace, no scowl. Just a grim stare and an even toned "what did it say to you."

  Taking a step closer to Aranu, I was careful to keep my voice low in case the Coatyl outside was close enough to eavesdrop. "It–he–said the Lahuel sent him to kill me and write a message in my blood telling Claire that she's next." This did finally manage to elicit a visible reaction from Aranu.

  I watched his eyes narrow on the bag he carried, as though he were wishing the Coatyl could be killed twice; he suddenly looked like he would enjoy choking the already dead creature. I knew the feeling. Looking around the trashed mess that was now my house was starting to make me feel pretty uncharitable, as well. Mentally I began to catalog the damage in just the kitchen alone. The carpet was definitely ruined, never mind that it had been the one thing I'd hated about my house. It had at least been functional for the time being. Not anymore, I sighed. The Coatyl blood would never come out.

  "Ari?"

  I brought my attention back to Aranu. "Yes?"

  "Are you ready to leave?"

  "Yes."

  "You want to cross the fence, right?"

  I nodded and grabbed my bow and arrows on the off chance the remaining Coatyl tried to ambush us once we got outside. It wasn't a likely scenario though, especially if the thing had been altered like the one Aranu now carried; it would be smart enough to know Aranu and I against a lone Coatyl weren't good odds for the Coatyl.

  "There was only one?" I bit my lip and followed him out the ruined door.

  "That I saw. But you know there's never just one. They're probably all over."

  "Maybe they're not all over." I mused as we tromped the few feet to fence. "What if they don't travel in packs anymore? Or what if they don't have to?"

  Aranu stealthily climbed over the fence, waiting until I had safely joined him on the protected side before speaking. "You mean what if they're smart enough to realize there are times to hunt together but also that one or two are less easily detected? That crowd mentality and brute force isn't the only way to hunt?"

  "Exactly." I knelt on the grass and began to lay out my change of clothes, along with the rag and jug of water I'd taken from the cabin. "What if they're not even hunting anymore?" I posed the question while Aranu tossed the burlap sack to the ground and begun to untie the cords at the end of the bag. "What if they're strategizing? What if they're organized?"

  He paused in the act of reaching into the sack. "That would certainly change things." he murmured, taking care to loosen the knot on the black plastic garbage bag that contained the Coatyl.

  "You're telling me." I muttered. "Let's just hope there aren't hundreds of the things running around. Turn around." I ordered. "I need to wash and change." Sure, the other Coatyl was out there somewhere–and we would be lucky if that was the only thing watching–but there wasn't anything I
could do about it. No way was I wearing bloody clothes all night.

  Aranu immediately shifted his position to show me his back and I began the disgusting process of removing the sticky garments, easing the shirt slowly over my head and knowing I was getting a little blood in my hair anyway. The front of the shirt was so wet that even folding the cloth over didn't help much.

  Once I'd stripped everything off, I poured a liberal amount of water onto one of the rags and proceeded to scrub most of the grime from my skin and hair. Once that was done, I used the second, smaller rag to dry off; I was slipping a clean black v-neck top over my head and twisting my thick hair into a knot at the back of my head when Aranu resealed the bags, rose to his feet, and turned to face me.

  "There will be more." he said. "If we're lucky there will only be a couple hundred running free."

  "That's not exactly a great best case scenario." I said dryly.

  "We aren't exactly lucky people are we?" He smiled ruefully.

  "Well, that depends on how you look at it." I mumbled. "You really think we've got an epidemic on our hands?"

  "If we don't now," he said, walking to the fence line to stare out into the darkness beyond the cabin, “we will soon.”

  Clouds had covered the moon again and the only illumination in our immediate vicinity came from the glimmer of the fence. The golden light softened Aranu's harsh features in profile. He looked more human.

  "Let's hope you're wrong." I balled up the bloody clothes and the rags, both the wet and the damp one, and hurled them over the fence and onto my front yard, intending to pitch the entire mess into the trash in the morning.

  "I'm not wrong." Aranu said without turning around. "If that thing had been mutated–and what other explanation could there be–others would have been, as well. If Kahn and the Lahuel have that kind of capability, why stop at one?"

  Why indeed. "Damn." He was right, though. It was looking more and more like the best we were going to do was damage control. That and hope to hell the remaining fences didn't fail anytime soon. "Well." I shook out my blanket and spread it evenly across the ground. "I'm going to bed. This day is officially over." I grumbled. "Right now."

  Aranu left the edge of the fence and came to a stop next to my make-shift bed. "You're sleeping out here?"

  "I've slept outside before." I needlessly pointed out. Nearly everyone Aranu and I knew had slept outside at one time or another and some, like Aranu himself, even preferred a pallet on the hard ground to sleeping on a bed. Once I had even seen him fall asleep on the thick branches of a large Gildwood tree.

  "If you're worried about the Coatyl in the woods, I can take you to the dome. Juliette and Tara are probably still up swimming. I'm headed that way to camp, anyway." He held out a hand, which I ignored.

  "Thanks, but I'm not afraid of the Coatyl." That was sort of a lie. "I'd go to the dome if I really wanted to." That was definitely a lie. "Besides, I'm too tired to go any further than right here." I patted the cold, hard ground beside the dark blue blanket.

  "Yeah?" He frowned, staring down at me for another long moment.

  "I'll be fine. Thanks for carrying the Coatyl though." I said, feeling guilty all over again for the way I had snapped at him earlier during the changing of the guard.

  "I've got to wake the men." he said after a full minute had passed.

  "That's probably a good idea." I agreed.

  "I don't want to leave you."

  "I'll be fine. I am fine. Go."

  "Do you want me to send anyone your way?"

  "Nope." I told him. "I'm going to sleep right now. I'll be at Mark and Claire's in the morning."

  "Good," he said. "I'll rally the troops and meet you there."

  I nodded and turned onto my side, wrapping myself in the blanket. His footsteps crunched across a handful of stray leaves that had blown across the ground near the fence and then nothing. Silence. He was gone.

  I let out the breath I'd been only dimly aware of holding and shivered in the black night, wishing it were dark enough to block out the sight of the bag that lay a few feet away. But thanks to Juliette's washing skills, the burlap sack had been bleached until it was almost as white as the Coatyl had been and even in the dark the thing stood out, though it was mostly the outline. But it was enough to know it was there. Three feet away.

  I gripped the edge of the blanket and rolled over to put several more feet of distance between the bag and myself. I had lied to Aranu, I thought, because there was no way I would be able to sleep tonight. But I yawned and within minutes the gentle shimmering, pulsing illumination of the fence, closer now, had lulled me into a deep, peaceful sleep. My dreams, though, were anything but.

  My feet barely touched the ground as I raced through the forest. I had to run, I had to get away. They couldn't be allowed to catch me, to bring me back. A harsh sob burst from my throat and the sound was alien, not me. Not me. Not me.

  But it had come from me...and then there was another and another until my breath was coming in painful gasps. Claire. I'd left Claire behind. I needed to go back and save her. I didn't stop, or even slow my pace, but continued to tear through the uneven ground of the forest. I wanted to be brave, like Claire had been for me.

  In my head, I was running back the way I'd came, I was crouching stealthily in the leafy vegetation that rimmed the eastern edge of the heavily guarded outpost. I was waiting until nightfall and I was breaking Claire out of that evil place. We were running through a moonwashed night, our freedom intact. In my heart, I was a hero.

  But the logical part of my brain that was somehow still capable of sane, rational thought told me I'd be assaulted...again...and sold as planned, if I were caught creeping near the guard shacks. My muscles screamed a protest, I had no weapons, everything...hurt. Another sob escaped and I dodged a fallen tree, kept running. I couldn't fight them. I'd be lucky to outrun them. In reality, Claire was gone, out of reach–for now, anyway. I'd seen one of them hit her, seen her crumple, out cold, before I'd done what she'd ordered, what she'd sacrificed herself for–I'd run. I couldn't help her. In reality, I was a coward.

  But maybe I could make it back to the village, or to the dome. If I could just get home, I could get help, send help, for Claire. My numb brain wondered what was happening to her right now and I felt my heart stutter painfully. Earlier, I'd lied to them, convinced them she was worth more money if they didn't touch her, but what about now? After what she'd just done, would they care how much gold they got for her? Would they kill her now, because of what she'd done for me?

  A fine, silvery mist made my vision hazy, disoriented. The river was coming up, just over the next rise. It wasn't deep but it would be cold. I had no shoes, nothing except a short, torn dress but there was no other choice. I would have to cross the river because I refused to stop, backtrack, and head west to skirt around the water. No, I couldn't stop. And then the decision was out of my hands as I leapt into the rushing tide.

  Icy water swirled around my ankles, and then my calves as I waded deeper, all without breaking stride. So cold. A rock, sharp and impossibly large, gouged into my bare foot and I went down, hard. My hands shot forward to brace the fall, but it was too late. My left wrist slicked over slimy, dark algae and black water rushed forward, over my face. I gasped and inhaled a mouthful of the cold torrent and struggled to find footing. I did look back then. Behind me, the woods had fallen grimly silent.

  Something was coming. Get up. Move. Lurching forward, I gripped handfuls of rich, muddy clay at the riverbank, and my heart pounded painfully in my chest as the wet soil began to slip through my fingers. Rushing water sluiced past me, trying desperately to suck me back into its ever-moving path. Muscles rigid, I dug in deep with one hand and with the other, managed to grip a protruding tree root and propel myself up and out. Run.

  Immediately, pain lanced through my ankle and up my leg. No, no, no! I made it ten or fifteen steps before the leg gave out and I went down, braced on my hands and knees in an awkward crouch. Behind
me, the demons that chased me were closing in. I didn't have to turn around to know this; I felt it in the chill at the back of my neck. Something was coming for me. The guards? An animal? The more rational part of my brain recognized the possibility that it was beast which pursued me now, not man. Did it matter? I couldn't run anymore, couldn't even walk. My heart thumped and stuttered and shimmery black fragments danced at the edge of my vision. Failed...it was all for nothing. I would never see Mike again. Never see Claire again, she'd given her life for this. The light was fading and the ground rushed up to greet me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so...sorry...

  ***

  "Aries?" The voice invaded my consciousness, soft and slowly insistent. "Ari, it's time to wake up now."

  I think some part of me realized, instinctively, that the whispered, musical voice belonged to Juliette.

  "I'm up." I gasped, ripped from the nightmare. My eyes flew open and bracing one hand on the ground, I pushed myself into a sitting position. But I didn't feel up. It was too damn early and I'd had too little sleep. I felt like I'd spent the entire night running for my life instead of just reliving that long-ago nightmarish day through my dreams–again.

  The sky in the horizon, over the small patch of Grandview that was visible far in the distance to my left, was just now becoming tinged with a delicate pink. The forest was still a sort of smoky pearl gray shade. Droplets of morning dew shone in the fragile half-light around us and flowering ivy had just begun to open to the day. The familiar woodsy scent filled the air, a heavy, full, tangible thing and slowly I began to find balance. Shoving off the dream, I took stock of my surroundings.

  Oh yeah. It was definitely too damn early. After so many months, all the late nights must have been taking their toll on my body because right then the ground was looking pretty good, no matter that it was hard as a rock and forget that the bottom of my blanket was becoming damp with dewdrops.