Chasing Shadow (Shadow Puppeteer) (23 page)

“It’s true,” the woman said. “You are the healer. You are the sympathizer. You can fix my daughter. Make her understand.”

“I cannot do anything for your daughter. I cannot fix her problem. I can only take her place for the shortest amount of time. If she chooses this as her path, I cannot save her from her decisions and I cannot die in her place.”

“D,” Katrina hissed.

“Please, my elegance and grace, let me die now, in your presence so that I will not have to witness my own child’s death at the hands of the Dutch Gamer,” the woman groveled. Her sadness swallowed her completely.

D leaned forward. “She’s with the Dutch Gamer.”

I knew the answer. It was clear on his face that he was going to do this. He couldn’t leave before we talked. I needed to know how he controlled the light so I could control the shadows.

“D?” I ventured.

“Go,” Katrina ordered me. “This doesn’t concern you.”

D broke the thin silence. “I trade a few days for her, but eventually he will kill her.”

“Another day, please, another day with my daughter. She will be fourteen tomorrow, and I wish to celebrate with her. If she leaves, let her leave us with a fond memory.”

“Do you think she wants the fondness?” D asked.

“Please, memories for us, the ones who love her and she forsakes,” the woman begged.

D pulled his arm from Katrina who protested. I wasn’t sure who to focus on. Horror crossed Katrina’s face as relief melted the tension in the woman. D stood and his hands were shaking.

“I will do this,” he said.

The woman flung herself at his knees, speaking that language I couldn’t follow. D was going to the Dutch Gamer to trade places with this girl.

“Don’t do this. Don’t play with the Dutch Gamer. The price on this one is too high. We need you well. The attack is in three days,” Katrina said.

“I can handle this.” He meant it, but the words were heavy.

“Who is the Dutch Gamer?” I asked.

“You can’t save the girl. Don’t do this,” Katrina begged.

“Where there is suffering—”

“There is always going to be suffering! Don’t you understand? There will be suffering as long as people live, but there will be more suffering if we don’t take World Congress down,” Katrina’s voice trembled.

His shoulders slumped as he turned his back on Katrina.

“You’re going to do it anyway,” she said. Before D could answer, Katrina stormed out of the kitchen and slammed her bedroom door shut.

“D?” I took a step forward. Uncertainty remained thick in the air making me jittery and uncomfortable.

“Jose is here,” he said.

D opened the door and Jose was indeed standing on the other side. Their greetings were short. I tried to slide past Jose to follow, but he caught my arm and stopped me.

“D’s going to the Dutch Gamer. I have to go with them.”

Jose looked down at the baseball bat I’d grabbed and frowned.

“That won’t work on Dutch,” he said.

I couldn’t shake his grip and the elevator dinged. The two were on their way down, but if I took the staircase I could catch up. Still, Jose wouldn’t release me.

“Someone needs to go with him,” I said.

I couldn’t save the boat captain or Sable, but I could save D. If his ability was dependent on light like mine was dependent on the dark, he wouldn’t be able to save himself if something went wrong. It wasn’t fair that this woman asked him to suffer for her daughter when this situation was her daughter’s doing.

“He made his decision and you won’t be able to talk him out of it. You can’t help him,” Jose said.

There was nothing but exhaustion in his tone as he thrust a pair of running shoes in my hands. I opened my mouth to protest, but he blocked the exit.

“Katrina will find him,” Jose said.

“Katrina’s in the be—”

Jose motioned me quiet. “The Dutch Gamer plays a game with his victims. I have faith that D will survive. He’s clever, but you must understand that D will always choose people who need him the most. No one can talk him out of these decisions, but right now, you aren’t skilled enough to fight that battle.”

I was thoroughly rebuked. Before Jose shut the door behind us, I heard glass shatter against the wall in Katrina’s room. I stopped in the doorway ready to go in and check on her, but Jose’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.

“Better she let go of her anger in here and not out there,” Jose said.

Feeling defeated, I let him close the door behind us, but it hardly cut the creeping energy that raged in the apartment. Anger got the best of me and I walked ahead of him.

P
ride kept me from looking over my shoulder to see if Jose was keeping up with my pace. At the moment, I felt alone and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. The light bulbs gave such a dim light that more than my shadow stirred.

Fear crept in, becoming suffocating. It warped my anger, but anger didn’t overshadow my fear. I slammed through the downstairs door, running into the empty hallway. I needed out of the building and its claustrophobic enclosure.

There was no sign of Jose so I slid outside the glass doors, welcoming the first biting breath of cold air. I was hoping I’d see D, but he was gone. If Jose knew what I was capable of, he’d know I was strong enough to follow D, but the guilt was too strong to mention what I’d done.

I saw movement at the corner of my eyes and dropped back, missing the punch aimed at my face. My clumsiness knocked me back, but instincts kicked in. I dropped down and kicked the man in the kneecaps. His bone snapped and he crumbled back, but two men took his place and one of them carried the bone knife that belonged to me.

The barrel of a gun pressed hard against the back of my head. I could almost smell the gunpowder as if the bullet already went through my head. I watched the lips of the man wielding my dagger as he spoke, but I couldn’t make sense of his words. My heart was pounding so hard that my adrenaline made it difficult to hear.

“Thought you could leave me for dead?” the man asked.

It wasn’t the alpha. I knew for a fact that he was dead, which left the man I stabbed, hence my bone knife. I wanted my blade back. He tapped my head with his gun.

“Are you listening? You’re going to die,” he said.

It was clear he wanted me to beg. He tapped harder, knocking me forward a few steps. The back of my head tickled, no doubt, with blood. My shadow heart pulsed. I feared it unleashing, but at the same time, I didn’t want to die.

“Maybe we should play a little,” the man said.

His hand cupped my hip and I bit my lip. The shadow within me was pulsing harder. I tried to hold onto it, but like water, it couldn’t be held. That familiar tingling made my body buzz.

I barely drew a breath when gunfire cracked the air. Wetness splashed my back. My hearing narrowed into a fine ringing, but I was very aware that I was still standing. Cold laced my fingertips and the wind sent my hair over my shoulders to tickle at my face. These were annoying sensations a dead girl wouldn’t feel.

The remaining men turned tail and ran. I stood, watching them, afraid that if I moved, I’d find that I really was shot.

“You’re okay, Belen,” Jose said.

I took one shaky breath and then another. I was frozen and not from the cold, though it was growing intense too. Jose was moving behind me taking care of the dead man.

“Belen?”

The shadow pulse retreated.

“I’m okay,” I said.

Jose put his hand on my shoulder and I found it reassuring.

Katrina’s scent drifted to me and we both turned her way as she walked down the street at a clipped speed. I should go with her, I felt it in every ounce of my being, but Jose was right. I still needed a great deal of training.

I couldn’t help D. I couldn’t help myself.

“We should go back in,” Jose said.

“No, I need to train.”

He wasn’t convinced, but I stood strong. If we went home now, I’d be stuck playing this moment over in my head. I needed D to show me how to control this.

“This way,” he said.

He flung the dead man thrown over his shoulder and I found myself staring down at my feet to avoid the large hole in the back of the man’s head. I wasn’t too happy when we stopped at the back of the buildings, facing the forest. The night made the trees menacing. I couldn’t help but wonder what made them stir the day we left the alpha in the alleyway. I hugged myself, mostly for warmth and because that shadow pulse responded to my fear.

Jose propped the dead man against the wall and that was it. The city got rid of its dead bodies by feeding them to whatever it was that lived in the forest.

“You’ll warm up when you start running,” Jose said.

“Running? I can barely see the path.” The back of my head still pulsed from where the man had whacked me with his gun, but my determination trumped the soreness.

“Give it a few minutes. Your eyes haven’t shifted to accommodate the limited lighting, yet,” Jose said.

The comment made me think of Rex. He was the only person I knew whose eyes changed color. I could mentally see that beautiful gold shift into the warmest brown. There was always a hint of trouble when the color of his eyes changed and that excited me.

I really wished more than a quarter of moonlight could get past the heavy foliage. “Can’t we train in the city where there’s light?”

Yesterday’s session was with weapons, which was enjoyable. After hours of handling knives, I had a new appreciation for them.

“We’re going to start with running tonight,” Jose said.

“I’m at the top of my class when it comes to running. I can run the mile in minutes,” I said.

Not only was I part of track, but I had practice running from bullies.

“Vampires can run it in seconds,” he said.

“This is why we should be practicing weapons.”

The trees and hanging moss curtained the world just ahead of us hiding dangers, but Jose plowed foreword.

“You’ll be grateful for this lesson when you’re being chased by something far more skilled in fighting than you are,” he said.

I didn’t want to run, I wanted to fight.

The trees gave way to a meadow, letting moonlight reflect over yellow grass. Frost made everything look so brittle. Very few trees grew by the water edge, but they all had a pink ribbon that dangled from the farthest branch, over the water’s edge. It spurred an idea.

“Time me,” I said.

“Belen, wait!”

I took off running down the slope, determined to show him how quick I was. It wasn’t even a quarter of a mile. I had this covered.

The hill was steeper than I thought and it almost sent me stumbling. Now that I was heading downward, the smell of the stagnant water was overpowering. It reminded me of my run-in with the doppelganger. The image was strong, but I couldn’t let it hold me back.

“Belen!”

My name was crisp in the air, but whatever followed it was lost in the wind. I wasn’t going to let Jose distract me. He obviously wanted me to jog the rest of the night.

Icy water rolled over my ankles as I stepped into the lake. My movement stirred nasty scents that made the back of my throat sting and my eyes water. I held my breath to keep from vomiting, but this vile smell sunk into every fiber of my being. I wasn’t going to add my DNA to this gunk. There had to be something in the lake to make it so soupy and thick.

It was hard enough keeping my balance with the slick moss underfoot. I couldn’t let this slow me down when the ribbon was a little further out over the water.

“Get out the—”

“I almost have it!” I shouted back.

The ribbon was a little higher up than I originally thought, and my fingers were stiff from the cold. I rose up on my toes to grab it and my feet slid out from under me. Pain vibrated up my spine the moment my tailbone hit the rock.

Time stopped as I hissed past the ache that stole my breath. I was now deep in cold water and the apartment was the last place I wanted to be tonight, but I couldn’t walk around in wet and stinky clothes.

“Get out of the water!” Jose’s voice was clearer now. He was still making his way down the hill, as recklessly as I had, but not nearly as fast.

“I’m okay!” I yelled back and regretted it. Some of the water dripped into my mouth and I tried to spit the taste out, but it stayed.

The water started to ripple. I knew in my heart that I wasn’t the one causing this. Something was coming. Fear froze me.

“Jose?”

“I’m coming,” Jose said. He was closer now.

“Something’s in the water.” I barely got the words out before something silky brushed against my wrists.

I backpedaled, sending oily water splashing up into my face. The twine wrapped around my ankle and tightened. I yanked my ankle, but it yanked back, sliding me over the slick rock. I was underwater before I could scream.

The water had its own heartbeat, its own music. I could never decide what it was about water when I was completely submerged, but it did have a sound, if only the pressure it put on my eardrums.

I yanked harder and met resistance. Water slid up my nose, burning a path down the back of my throat. Adrenaline lent me strength, but the pain from the twine digging into my ankle drained the better part of my thoughts. The rocky bottom disappeared as I was pulled into the abyss.

I was going to suffocate. I balled myself and blindly grabbed at what was tangled around my ankle. It was strong and thin. The energy in me, that shadowy heart that beat just within the confines of my chest grew quicker. I gripped the twines and it dung into my fingers as I yanked hard.

The pain was immense, but I was free. My cuts stung as I used my hands and feet to paddle upward. The water pressure pushed the wounds open, but all I could think about was breathing. I broke through the surface and the wind couldn’t make me any colder. It was difficult wading with my nerves in overdrive. The tree with the little ribbon was clear across the lake now that I was in the middle of it.

Jose was on shore, waving at me. I pushed my wet hair away from my face with the back of my hand, careful about touching my cuts.

“Jose!”

Jose was pacing along the shoreline. “Get out of the water!”