Chasing Shadow (Shadow Puppeteer) (24 page)

He started to make swimming motions. Yeah, like I hadn’t already thought of that, except the lake grass wasn’t ready to give up. Air bubbles popped around me as something drew close to the surface. A mass of thin lake grass strands tickled along my legs and wrists, enclosing me in its strands. If it got a good grip on me, I wouldn’t get free this time.

Pain made my hands useless in wading water and fighting off the strands that curled around my flesh. I opted for a quick retreat. Jose was knee deep in the water waiting for me as I swam towards shore.

Something smooth and slimy brushed against the length of my stomach, swimming faster than I could. It was either playing with me or trying to cut me off. The more I swam, the more tangled I felt in the thin wiry strands.

“…ju…” Jose was still yelling, but his words were mere gibberish over my thrashing.

I was getting closer to shore without incident, which made me slow my progress. It was playing with me. I wasn’t going to walk away from this. Bubbles rolled up around me, as if the creature were laughing.

“Belen, hurry!” Jose yelled.

I grew anxious when nothing happened. It was waiting for me to do something, so I started swimming until I felt the mossy ground under my feet. Jose started towards me as I tried to find traction on the slick ground and gave up. I’d have to swim until I could walk or crawl out of the lake.

“Don’t,” I warned.

He stopped and we stared at each other. The understanding was there. Still nothing looped around my ankles. The moonlight couldn’t penetrate the dark water, but I knew the strands were there. What was it waiting for? I was right here.

My shadowy heart was pounding. I felt the shadows’ willowy outstretched hands trying to get my attention. Dread pierced through me. I couldn’t let them out, but holding them in wasn’t possible either.

“You have to go. Leave me.”

He wasn’t moving and dread became ice within my veins. I couldn’t control the shadows. What if they killed him on accident? I couldn’t stand myself if that happened.

“Now!” I ordered.

He wasn’t moving, so I stepped towards him. If I could get out of the water, maybe my shadow heart would slow down. When nothing happened, I took another step and that’s when the lake grass tangled around my ankles and yanked me back into the water. My chin hit the rocks rattling my jaw. There wasn’t time to think. I dug my fingers into the rock, holding on for dear life as it tried to pull me out.

A strong grasp on my wrists yanked back, keeping me from going under. My hair was in my face, but I knew it was Jose from his touch. We were making progress. He had me in the shallow end and I took a deep breath, afraid I’d be pulled back under.

“Hold on,” Jose ordered.

His feet were knocked out from under him and his loosened grip gave the creature enough leverage to yank me out, but this time, Jose came with me. My anger was immediate and the darkness within my shadowy heart started to spread. My hatred was consuming. It clogged my thoughts before I could force it down.

The tension in the vines broke and it took just a moment to realize that Jose was cutting us free with his dagger. How he managed to hold onto it with the slick water and the vines pulling at us, I didn’t know. Still, the anger wouldn’t curve under the joy of seeing Jose. He managed to free me from the creature’s connection, but the smaller strands still dug painfully into my skin.

The creature broke the water’s surface with her black lips curved back in a terrible scream. Her long naked torso twisted like a snake and her milky white eyes rolled angrily in her sockets. She was pissed.

Green vines shot out of the water, nailing Jose in the shoulder with a wet thud. Blood exploded around the wound and it drilled that sucker around, making the hole larger. Jose screamed, clutching his hurt shoulder as it pulled him down under the water.

No! I wasn’t going to let it take Jose down with it. Waves of hate poured through my veins. Sweat dotted my skin despite the cold water and frigid air, but it didn’t warm the chill that settled in my chest.

I grasped Jose by the shoulders and pulled his head out of water and he clutched at my arm.

“Run.”

The creature screamed in irritation as her vines shot at me. One thick vine stopped inches from my face. Water dripped off the limb and onto Jose’s forehead. I couldn’t draw a breath as I focused on the rapid beating of my heart.

Clouds rolled over the moon blocking all light, but I still saw the water creature perfectly. Her grass hair was knotted and twisted vines took the place of legs and arms. Jose jerked with the pressure of her vine retreating from his body.

“Are you doing this?” Jose asked.

He sounded so weak. With the way the blood pounded in my ears, he also sounded miles away. The same dark fog that blocked the moonlight now rolled over the water’s surface.

“I don’t know,” I lied.

With the way Jose tensed in my lap, he obviously knew it was coming from me. I let Jose go and grabbed my knife. The last thing I wanted was more wounds, but pain quieted the emotional distress and that was what the shadows fed on.

The creature lunged forward and halted with its teeth inches from my face. Its glazed white eyes stared at me. Fear struck a familiar cord. It was the same cord that drew the shadows into a dangerous mambo. I could cut myself and free the shadows, but the anger inside me willed them into brutality.

It screeched as it was yanked back and pulled out of the water. Jose moved from my hands, and through our connection, I felt his disgust and confusion. I was very aware that he watched me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the shadows that swirled around the creature.

Her anger wasn’t the only thing passing through the energy that connected me to the shadows. I could feel her fear. It should have spurred sympathy, but it made me crave violence. I wanted her to suffer and that dark part of me rejoiced. What was I becoming?

Her vines looked like twisted intestines as water dripped down her parts. She clawed at the shadow with talons that could puncture my torso. The last of her vines snapped free from the water, making her look like a twenty foot long up heaved jellyfish.

“What are you doing to it?” Jose asked.

He tried to get me to stand, but I couldn’t draw my attention away from the sheer power that took control over the water creature. The black fog was wispy and light, crushing the creature as it had the alpha wolf. The shadows started to whirl, which was new. Little chunks of the creature rained down into the water around us.

The connection I had to the darkness left me queasy. I felt so empty inside. It amplified the loneliness I already felt. Worst of all, I no longer felt in control of my emotions. It felt like the emptiness inside me was expanding. I saved us, but at what expense. I was changing.

I took the blade and drew it over my wrist. The pain was sharp and the results were immediate. The connection immediately faded. The shadows dissipated and what was left of the body was dropped back into the water. I was very aware how my blood gathered over my skin far thicker than the clinging water.

Jose grabbed the blade from my hand. “Don’t try to control it like this.”

He tucked his arm under my shoulders and though we were both exhausted, he lent me strength as he pulled us from the water. Once on shore, he let me go and leaned against the tree. His wound looked grisly. We needed to get out of here, but exhaustion left me ready to faint.

Right now, I could barely stand myself. “What’s wrong with me?”

“After what I just saw, I’d say you’re a Shadow Puppeteer,” he said.

I
t looked like I ran my hands over a grater. The cuts were deep slivers that parted my skin like fish gills. If time heals all wounds, four days was definitely not long enough for the time healer to do much. My hands still ached, though truthfully they looked a little better than they had the first night. Even the gash I made in my arm to stop the overwhelming rush of emotions from the shadows, was slow in healing.

I looked through all the books Jose left me with, but there was nothing about Shadow Puppeteers. Katrina avoided my questions and Jose hadn’t stopped by since the incident. I was worried about his injury and the guilt over the situation got to me. If I’d just run like he asked, we both wouldn’t be laid up like this. It was probably killing him that he couldn’t comb the city.

Four days was too long not seeing him or D. It wasn’t easy to forget the dangers outside the wall when the restlessness set in. I wanted back out there. I wanted to prove to Jose that I was worth his time.

I couldn’t admit it out loud, but I wanted him to be proud of me. If he gave up on me, I’d have no one and damnit, I really wanted someone to care. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, willing myself to get dressed and do what Jose would want me to do.

He came after me. That was something I’d never forget. He almost died because of me.

Katrina slammed my bedroom door open, startling me. “Are you going like that?”

Her energy was fierce and I was glad my shields were up, but she was really projecting. She was decked out in stunning burgundy low v-neck top and matching tight pants. Her heels were four inches high adding height, but what was truly impressive was all the heat she was packing.

“Are those grenades on your belt?” I stood and the pain in my ankles was immediate. I hissed, but wasn’t willing to show how bad it hurt. I couldn’t give her a reason to leave me behind.

“Yes,” she said so matter of fact that I felt stupid asking. She glanced around my room, looking flustered until her eyes fell on the wolf picture.

“Is that D?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I gave up on small talk.

“Where are we going?” I slid off the bed and went straight to the closet.

“We’re going to go get D,” Katrina said.

She left my bedroom door open when she marched out. There was a great deal of tension in that statement and my nerves made my hands shake as I tried to choose an outfit. Every movement elicited pain, but I swallowed it down. I deserved this severe reprimand for being so reckless. I would listen to Jose from now on.

I found an outfit that mirrored Katrina’s, then pulled on thick knee high socks to pad my bandaged ankles before slipping on knee high boots. Before I zipped them in place, I slid two thin knives into the built-in blade slots. The only downfall to wearing the boots was that the cuts on my ankles still hurt like hell in the tight confines.

Dressed and ready, I joined Katrina in the living room. My excitement faded at Katrina’s frown.

“We might run into some trouble with both the Dutch Gamer and World Congress. My informants say that World Congress is scheduled to search the island tonight. It’s two days sooner than we estimated,” she said.

This meant I was going to need to be as packed as Katrina.

I held up my Browning. “I’ll take all your extra ammo for this.”

“You’ll need more weapons than that,” she said, placing a box on the table.

I was impressed with the abundance of ammo she had sitting on the table, some of which didn’t fit any of the guns also sitting on the smooth surface. I immediately took her statement as an open invitation and grabbed one of the sawed off shotguns, which felt amazingly powerful in my hands. I pulled the strap over my shoulder and loaded up on as many weapons as I could comfortably fit on my body, and managed to shove a few extra knives in the built in knife sheaths in my jacket.

With the way Katrina was dolled up with weapons, I wasn’t going to under dress. I clipped two plum size grenades to my belt when Jose came through the door. My heart gave a little flip flop at seeing him as heavily armed as Katrina. Now wasn’t the time to be scared, but I was. If he was still hurting, he didn’t show it.

“Do you think World Congress is definitely going to show up tonight?” I asked once the guns were loaded. It helped to focus on one topic at a time. I wasn’t sure who the Dutch Gamer was, but I knew World Congress was an immediate threat.

“I think we should be ready just in case,” Jose answered.

Katrina slid on her arm sheath filled with throwing knives.

“You know how to throw knives?” I asked.

“Twenty years as a knife thrower in Russian circus, then I found a jackpot in ripping men’s hearts out,” she answered.

I stopped laughing when Katrina remained somber.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

Katrina was exotic, but I couldn’t picture her living as a gold digger. If she had money, why wasn’t she living in the nicer buildings on the inner streets of town?

“Literally, she takes D to the Yes Madam club and rips his heart out on stage for an audience,” Jose said. He handed me two arm sheaths. “You can at least play the part, right?”

Oooh, my own throwing knives. A girl could get to like this. I rolled up the sleeves on my coat, ignoring the protesting pain in my fingers. If Jose could play tough, so could I. My inner voice begged that he would notice how determined I was. I wasn’t someone to throw away, yet, it felt like everyone did.

I had to bite back the self-pity. Now wasn’t the time, though that emotion was strong. It felt like my defenses were paper thin.

“Don’t pull the blades unless you’re right on top of the person,” Jose warned.

I didn’t throw as bad as he made it sound. Five nights ago, we had practiced for hours, but at the moment, even wrapping my hand around the hilt made my fingers ache. Maybe some of the discomfort was due to the knife hilt being flatter. Jose handed me fingerless gloves to hide the bandages, which took a little longer to put on. I had to readjust the bandages.

“What am I walking into?” I asked.

Despite the pain, I clenched my hands to get the feel of the gloves.

“The Dutch Gamer,” Katrina said, as if this was supposed to explain everything.

The man obviously scared Katrina and worried Jose. I lowered my shields, but I didn’t press my metaphysical fingers at Jose. There was concern there, but his lack of fear bothered me. Someone who wasn’t afraid of death was someone waiting to die. I’d have to watch his back. He should have felt me prodding, but he didn’t respond.