Blade Song

chapter Twenty Two

Kori led us to the healing hall without speaking. There was an odd look in her eyes when she first looked at Damon, but she said absolutely nothing, which was weird, I thought.

Es was in the hall with the two girls and when she saw me, that gentle smile curved her lips. “You slept.”

“Yes.” I didn’t mention the odd dreams or anything else. As I tried to figure out how to explain what I needed, she rose from the chair where she’d been seated and came to me.

“Ahhh…” She unwrapped my wrist and studied the punctures. They still bled. “You realize, of course, there are several ways to heal this.”

Damon’s hand curved over the back of my neck.

I stared at her pale eyes and waited.

“A full healing would remove any scarring but it’s more invasive and you’d need rest. A day, possibly more, since your body has already been rather taxed.”

As one, Damon and I said, “No.”

She flicked a look at Damon. “Cat, I understand the significance, but I need her answer…hers alone.”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “You heard my answer. I know what the damn thing means and I want it there. No full healing.”

“Because you can’t take the down time?”

“No.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Because I asked him to put it there in the first place. Why ask him to do it if I’m just going to have you remove it?”

Now she smiled again, and the look on her face was oddly pleased. “Wonderful. A minor healing spell, then. You’re probably familiar with it. I can accelerate the healing—it will be like it’s months old, instead of minutes.”

“Ah…months?”

Any time Colleen had done such a spell, she’d just been able to ramp it up for a few days, a few weeks at best.

Es smiled at me. “I’m the mother of this house, Kitasa. I have a bit more skill, a bit more power at my disposal than some of the witches you’ve known. And you’ll need all your strength for when you go back out.”

I felt the hot power of Damon’s energy slam in me, the burst of his anger flaring.

Yeah, pal. I know you don’t want me going back out.

But I couldn’t wait quietly, either.



Es had her hands on my wrist and the wonderful, warm crawl of her magic was spreading through me when Damon’s phone rang.

I tensed.

It was her.

Annette. The Queen Bitch. The Alpha Cat. And Damon’s Lady.

Bile knocked at the back of my throat but I swallowed it down as I turned my head and stared at his wide shoulders. He held his phone for a moment, staring at it before he lifted his head to meet my gaze.

Then he answered it, his voice falling into that flat, familiar tone. Even just two days ago, I’d thought that tone signified reverence. It didn’t. It was just…emotionless.

What had Es said—

…notices everything and she’ll notice more about you than you could possibly imagine, including what you had for breakfast, the fact that you’re in rut, and the fact that you hate your Alpha…

I studied him closer.

Did he hate her?

“He does,” Es murmured, her voice low, very low.

I jerked my gaze to her, my mouth opening. She shook her head and mouthed, “Later.”

Then she let go of my hand. I looked down. The pain was gone. She wiped away the blood and I stared at the pale, scarred skin of my left wrist. Bite marks. Very, very clearly bite marks.

A bronzed hand closed around my wrist. I looked up into Damon’s eyes.

But he was too busy staring at my wrist and the look in his eyes was hot. Burning hot.

“Yes, Lady,” Damon said, in that neutral voice that belied the heat in his gaze. “We found him late last night but under unpleasant circumstances. I was unable to call you at the time, because of those circumstances and I deeply regret the oversight. I’ll make amends upon returning to the lair.”

I heard her voice. “You will make amends? The investigator should also make amends, Damon. She was the one hired, the one I am paying. Bring her with you.”

His hand tightened. “With all due respect, Lady, I cannot. She has seen her part in this job completed and is unable to travel back to Orlando. She’s requested that her payment be deposited into her account for completion of the job.”

“And why is she unable to travel, my dearest Damon?” Annette asked, her voice silky and smooth.

The mother looked at me and tapped her finger on something in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed it.

“This is the contract we discussed, Ms. Colbana. As you’ve completed your assignment for the Cat clan, I’m anxious for you to get to work on this promptly. We need to know who is behind this.”

Damon’s shoulders tensed. He stared at Es, an unreadable look in his eyes.

Es simply watched me with a smile.

I swallowed as I heard Annette’s voice drop into a growl over the phone. “Who do I hear speaking, Damon?”

“It’s a Green Road witch, Lady.”

“A witch…”

Pretending oblivion seemed best. Bending over the table, I studied the contract. “And the terms are as we discussed?” It looked fair. Legit. And real as all get out.

“Of course. We can only pay five thousand, I’m afraid. We aren’t a rich house, but I believe you understand the importance of seeing this through—whoever has been preying on the NH children needs to be caught. You already have information in your hands so you are far more suited than anybody else,” Es said quietly. Then she leaned forward, a smile in her eyes even though her face was solemn. “And I offer something that has more value than money. You already have a few friends among our house, but I offer kinship. While you do this job, you’ll have whatever protection our house can offer and if you find us answers, I’ll apply to the Order of Witches to have you honored with the designation of kinship. It’s not often granted to those outside our order. We’ll offer you aid just as we’d offer it to any of our house. When you have need of us, we’ll be there.”

I stared at her. Was she serious? Allies. Real, true allies, I realized. But was she serious?

Es smiled serenely. “It’s all in the contract, Kit. The very valid, very legal contract. One of my granddaughters is human—not a drop of magical blood and she went into law, specializes in NH rights. She did the contract for me last night and delivered it this morning. Sign it and I can offer you a protection that you’ll not find elsewhere.”

I snatched the pen out of her hand so fast, she chuckled. Hell, I’d planned on seeing this through anyway.

“Put the investigator on the phone,” Annette demanded. “I want to rehire her immediately, Damon. I want answers and I’ll pay her one hundred thousand whether she finds the culprit or not, but she has to return to Orlando now.”

I was already signing my name.

“Lady, I’m afraid she’s already contracted elsewhere. I’m deeply regretful.”

I slid him a sidelong glance. He was still staring at my wrist.



She continued to yell at him.

I listened. Drank a cup of coffee and finished half of a second cup before she finally seemed to recognize the futility of it. “You will not be bringing the investigator back when you return to East Orlando, will you, Damon?”

He sat across from me, long legs sprawled out, bracketing mine. His thumb stroked over the smooth surface of the scars. “I will not, Lady. My humble apologies,” he said.

I managed to keep my snort behind my teeth, but only because I knew she’d hear it.

“Very well. You’ll return with Doyle.”

I scowled, thinking it was weird that she hadn’t asked about him at all.

A snarl ripped through the air.

“No.”

I tensed. Damon’s hand tightened on my hand and he looked up to see Doyle standing just inside the protective entrance to the healing hall. Doyle crouched down, his eyes bouncing between Damon and me before landing on Damon. Muscles rippled, bulged and I could see stripes ghosting on his skin before disappearing. “No,” he spat again. “I won’t go back.”

Rathi—

My gut went cold as the sight of him and fear chittered like a caged beast in the back of my head but I slammed it down.

“Doyle,” I said softly. “Your aunt was worried for you. She just wants you home safe.”

He snarled and the sound of it echoed through the small room. “The f*ck she does. Do you know why I ran? So I wouldn’t have to go back to her.” He slanted a look at me, and then his head cocked, lingering on the way Damon gripped my wrist. “I won’t go back—I won’t—”

He lunged at me.

Damon shoved me aside.

I had my blade in the next second, rolling across the floor and coming up in crouch.

The phone lay on the floor and I could hear Annette talking, her voice calm and cool, as though Damon still held the phone instead her nephew, caught in a half-shift, pinned to the wall.

“Shut it down, kid,” Damon panted. “Before I have to hurt you.”

Doyle just struggled harder. I stared at his blue eyes and felt his fear dancing over my skin.

“If the boy doesn’t return home, the investigator will not be paid and her life is still forfeit.”

Oh, screw this. Sneering at the phone, I snatching it up. “Listen, Alpha. I can’t make him come home if he doesn’t want to. And if I recall shifter law correctly, once he’s hit his first shift, the Assembly will see him as an independent in his own right, meaning he can make his own judgment. Now…by our contract, you hired me to find him. I have unbiased witnesses, a Green Road witch who can vouch that he has been found. Now whether you decide to pay or not, I did my job, but if you don’t pay me, I’ll make sure every f*cking soul in the south knows you don’t honor your f*cking word.”

Damon swore and I looked up. I saw the words in his eyes, but I was fed up with having that crazy woman try to terrify me into anything.

“Do you understand who you are talking to?” she whispered.

“Yes. A woman who is about to go back on a contract she made. The kid was found. Job completed. End of story.” I hurled the phone at Damon, but he had his hands full with Doyle’s struggling body and it bounced off his shoulder.

Es caught it.

I closed my eyes as she lifted it to her ear.

Shit.

I’d just drawn somebody else into the mess.

“Would this be Annette?”

“I’ve no business with you, witch. There is no trouble between us.”

“Of course not. We’ve always accommodated each other, the Cat Clan and the House of Witches…have we not?” Es smiled as she moved over to study Damon and the struggling boy. “Your nephew has successfully shifted. I witnessed it myself last night. As a speaker for the Assembly, I’ll be happy to register his status for you.”

Doyle stopped struggling.

Damon cut a look at Es.

She turned away and continued to pace. “He’s in an emotional state after his ordeal. Perhaps he just needs time to acclimate. However, I understand that you might be distraught at his behavior. That would certainly explain your behavior in recent moments…despite the fact that Colbana did in fact successfully complete a job. A job she’ll naturally be compensated for.”

Silence reigned.

It was finally broken by the sharp sound of the Alpha’s voice as she said, “Naturally. I’ll have the funds deposited once Damon returns. He’ll see to it.”

“Wonderful. I’ll see you in session.”

Es disconnected the call and laid the phone on the table by the contract. “Well. That was pleasant.” Then she frowned and looked at Doyle. “Really, boy. Control yourself. If you can’t discipline yourself better, you’ll end up as crazy as your aunt.”

Doyle flinched.

Es looked at me. Her eyes went cold and bright. “This isn’t over between you two. She fixates and hates blindly. You just became her enemy.”

“I think that happened the minute I was hired for this job. No matter what the outcome.”

“Entirely possible.”


“You…you’re leaving me?”

I stood in the hallway, very much out of Doyle’s line of sight, although I knew that wouldn’t make much difference.

He could scent me, hear me.

Although at the moment, he was focused on nothing but Damon.

Damon, I could see. He stood at edge of the hall, right where it bended out of sight, head angled down as he looked at the kid. “I’ve been called back. You might have decided to fly solo, man, but I’m still part of the clan and unless I cut ties, I have to answer to the Alpha. You know what happens if I don’t.”

“How can you go back to her?”

I closed my eyes at the sound of his voice. He sounded like what he was, really. A scared kid. A lonely one. Even if he did grow three inch fangs when he was pissed. Tiger, I was thinking. He shifted into some kind of tiger. I’d seen stripes trying to come through on his skin.

I figured that meant the Queen Bitch was a tiger, too.

Queen of the Jungle. She probably liked that.

Enemy…my hand tingled.

Now I had two of them to deal with. And those were just the local ones. Heaven help me if my grandmother ever decided to acknowledge my existence again.

But those were problems for another day.

“If I don’t go back, you know what happens. I’m rogue and they send everybody after me,” Damon said, his voice hard and flat.

“Then just take her out!” Doyle half-shouted.

“And step into her shoes? Shit. Grow up, kid. It’s not as simple as that.”

Damon’s eyes cut my way and then he looked back at the boy. “Stay here. Out of trouble…the witches here can help if you start feeling shaky. They’ve done it before and Es is decent people. And…” his voice dropped to a threatening growl. “Keep your eyes, your paws, your thoughts off what’s mine. Because I will be back…and as much as I love you, Doyle, you won’t stand a chance if you hurt what’s mine.”

Doyle muttered under his breath and swore. He walked away; although I couldn’t see it, I knew he was gone. The intensity in the air faded and instead of two angry shifters hovering nearby, there was only one.

My one.

He looked at me and then jerked his head as he headed outside.

There was a car waiting.

Es had said it was on loan.

It was long, lean and black, a throwback from the days of those old muscle cars and it looked like it might have been made just for him. As he leaned back against it, he stared at me with fury dancing in his eyes. “You had to do it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” I thought it all through one more time. Then I nodded. There wasn’t anything I would have taken back or changed. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“F*ck.” He bit it off and turned away, hands braced on the hood of the car.

“Can you take her?”

He tensed. “Don’t start on me, damn it. I hear it from Doyle all the time; I don’t need it from you.”

“That’s not an answer.”

His snarl seemed to echo for miles. “Yes!” He whirled around and stormed up to me, closing a hand over the front of my vest as he hauled me onto my toes. “I can. But it doesn’t mean I will. I don’t want to lead her f*cked-up clan of maniacs and that’s what I’d have to do if I killed her.”

“She doesn’t lead. She terrifies and abuses.” I lifted a hand to his cheek. “I know what your Alpha is like.”

“No,” he said, his teeth clenched. “You don’t. You don’t have a f*cking clue.”

“I think I do.” Studying his unyielding face, I brushed my thumb over his lip. “She’s like my grandmother.”

His lids flickered.

“You want to know why I don’t flee when I’m afraid?” I said softly.

The hand clutching my vest let go and he spun away from me.

“You asked about my back. Aneira children are placed on the training field when we are strong enough to lift a training sword. I wasn’t strong enough until I was six. I was slower. Weaker. I had the shit beaten out of me by cousins who were better than me, more skilled.

“The teachers pushed me hard, but they weren’t cruel. Then my grandmother started coming to practices and…” I shrugged. “I was eight the first time she took a whip to me. I wasn’t fast enough during one of the exams for the year-training. I failed. So I was whipped…in front of the rest of the students, in front of the teachers, in front of my cousins.”

I gave him a faint smile as he stared at me, his eyes so dark they were nearly black. “You probably figured out we weren’t exactly attending public schools or anything. This was at Aneris Hall—my family home, and there, my grandmother’s word was law. My blood is too weak to be a real warrior in her eyes, but she’d beat as much human weakness out of me as she could. I passed the exams when I was nine, but I stumbled at the end and they took off points, so she beat me again. After that, it was like she found reasons to do it often. Sometimes it was a monthly event. It got to be where everybody knew I’d be whipped when the school session closed. A few parents could make up reasons to not attend, but a lot of them would just sit there…and watch while she whipped me.”

“Enough,” he said.

“No.” I caught his shoulder, shoved my right arm in front of him. There were no scars—the healers of Aneris Hall were skilled and while they’d hurt me like hell, they did it without leaving a mark. “Remember when you told me I couldn’t hold my blade forever and I told you otherwise? It’s a skill I learned young—after my grandmother broke my arm when I was eight, and again when I was fourteen. All because I lowered my guard. I was eight years old the first time and I lowered my blade, Damon. I’d been practicing for four hours and I was tired. I lowered it and she broke my arm. The next time, I was a skinny, underweight teenager. I weighed eighty pounds and my weapon was a two-handed battle axe designed for a man more than twice my size. I dropped my guard in practice and while my aunts watched—my mother’s sisters—that evil bitch broke my arm and busted my collarbone.”

“Stop it,” he snarled. He gripped my head between his hands, pressing his brow to mine, eyes squeezed shut. “Just…stop, damn it.” A shudder wracked him. “Why tell me this now?”

“They could have stopped it. My aunt Rana would sometimes look at me with pity in her eyes. There were times she’d slip me food, or when my clothes were falling apart, she’d make sure I had something else so I wasn’t walking around naked. Others would look away from me because they couldn’t stand the shame they felt—I saw that on them. Some of them pitied me, but they were terrified of her. And if enough of them had said something, or if they’d all stood together, they could have stopped her. And Rana was strong enough to stand up to her, but she never did. So I suffered for it. Right now, the entire clan suffers because of one crazy bitch. And you’re strong enough to take her out?”

His hand shot out and fisted in my hair. “You know what’s going to happen if I do it? It makes me the Alpha. I’m not a f*cking leader.”

“Like hell.” I curled my lip at him.

“I’m not. Not to mention that if I did, it would put you up as a target, baby girl.” Curling one hand around my wrist, he pressed his fingers on the scars. “I marked you. Right now, I’m just a grunt—a strong one, but I have no real position in the pack because I won’t take one. If I take her out, everybody around me, everybody who matters becomes a target. It’s not an issue with her because nobody matters to her and it’s not a secret. The main reason Doyle was safe was because he was a child and attacks on children are not accepted. Whether or not he’s safe now will depend on whether or not he makes himself independent of the clan. But if I take her out, people will see you as a target—a way to get to me. F*cking no.”

“I’m not that easy of a target,” I said quietly.

“No.” It was a hot growl against my lips but I turned away.

Pressing against his chest, I stared at him. “You do what you have to, Damon. But if you keep letting her brutalize and terrify people when you can do better…”

Something cold settled in me.

“I told you it was permanent, baby girl,” he said quietly. “I meant it.”

I arched a brow at him. “Then we better find a way to work through this because I can’t live knowing you look past the kind of cruelty that I had to live with, Damon. I can’t.”

The silence that fell between us was heavy and cold.

He went to get into the car, but before he could, I crossed to him. I leaned in and pressed my mouth to his. “Be safe,” I said quietly.

“There’s no chance of that.” A humorless smile twisted his lips. “Making amends to the Alpha comes with blood and pain, baby girl. But I’ll survive it.”

My gut twisted as I leaned back, staring at him. “What?”

Damon just shook his head. “Will you wait for me?”

“You know I can’t.”

A hooded look came across his face and he tangled his hand in my hair. “Then I guess I’ll just have to move up my timetable,” he muttered, tugging my head back. I groaned as he pressed a hot kiss to my neck. “You stay safe. And don’t go out alone.”


Our first stop was the bait store where Damon had bought me the bows.

It was a bust.

As in completely.

“It’s closed up,” I said quietly, staring at the vacant place.

There wasn’t even any merchandise in the store.

No sign in the window or anything.

“You were just here, right?” Kori said, a frown on her weathered face. The mother had insisted I take the other witch. She’d promised protection and Kori was one of her strongest hands.

So Kori had my back for the gamut of this, it seemed.

I had to admit, I was pretty okay with it.

“Yeah.” We circled the building, but it was an exercise in futility. There was nothing. No cars. No notes about what had happened. Nothing. “He knew something, that son-of-a-bitch. And when we got the kids out last night, he had a warning, somehow, and cleared out.”

“Damon said there were cameras. Maybe this dude was one of the ones in on it,” Kori offered. She glanced down the road and then circled back around, motioning for me to follow.

I sighed and did, rubbing my itching palm while I did so. “There’s nothing here to see, Kori. Can we head on to the park? It’s a day long thing—several days—just on its own.”

“In a minute, in a minute.” She crouched on the back step, studying it. “Hmm. Perfect.” Dragging a finger through the dirt, she whispered under her breath.

I shivered as I felt the magic dance in the air.

I couldn’t define it, couldn’t understand. But I could damn well feel the magic and hers was strong.

“Ah, yes…there we go. Dude was scared when he packed out. Big time scared. Running for his life kind of scared.”

Staring at her bowed head, I asked, “How can you tell?”

“It’s in the earth. Earth has lots of secrets and she whispers it to those who can hear.” With a sly little smile on her face, she shrugged. “Like me.”

She muttered a little more under her breath and I felt the rise and fall of her magic. Finally, she sighed. “There’s more to follow but I can’t do that and help you. Let me call Es and she can decide what to do. We can do that on the road, though.”


“Can you call another weapon besides the sword?”

I closed my eyes.

I really didn’t want to waste my breath talking to Kori. Kori, however, liked talking. A lot.

Swiping the sweat out of my eyes with my forearm, I stared at the back of her rainbow-hued head. She was red and orange today. Like a damn phoenix. “What?”

“The sword. I saw what you did the other night. And the sword is amazing—I tried to touch it, you know—”

I stopped in my tracks, glaring. “You what?”

“Heh.” She turned around, a cheeky grin on her face. “Guess that’s off-limits. Same as your sexy cat? Don’t worry, I only like the male species as a once-in-a-while thing. The sword is way cooler than the cat anyway.”

Mine. Both of them. Possessiveness prickled inside me as I stared at her. “When did you mess with my blade?”

“Oh, I didn’t. I tried.” She shrugged. “I saw it on the floor while Damon was pumping the water out of you and I was just going to put it up out of the way. But when I went to touch it, it was like it…” She paused and rubbed her hands. “It doesn’t want me.”

“She hates anybody but me touching her.”

Kori nodded. “Yes. I felt that. Her, huh?”

I just stared at her.

She grinned back at me. “So, can you call anything else?”

“No.”

Black brows arched over her eyes and she cocked her head, studying me. “Ever tried?”

I jerked a shoulder. “She’s the only one I feel that connection to.”

“Hmmm.” She shrugged and turned back around. “Might be useful to try and learn it. The sword is a cool bitch, but sometimes, you need a different kind of tool. My best magic is of the earth.” She pointed off the path, waving her hand at the field of grass undulating between us and the water. “I can make that open up and swallow anything that walks over it. But sometimes I need fire and if I have to, I can throw it around almost as good as Tate does. Not for as long, of course, and it won’t burn as hot, but I can do it. Now, Tate…she’s short-sighted. She’s got a touch of earth inside her, but she won’t mess with it. It could come in handy if she’d learn how to work it, but she won’t.” Kori glanced at me over her shoulder. “Know what separates the superior warrior from the middle-class one, Kit? It’s learning how to use every weapon, every tool at your disposal.”

“Wow. You sure use a lot of words to say that very profound sentence,” I drawled. Disturbingly profound. I looked at the compound bow I carried, thought of the sleek, lovely bow back in my car. And even that was enough to stir her song…I could hear her now. Whispering in my mind, the beat of her drums, thudding in time with my heart.

Well, shit.

“Work on it,” Kori said cheerfully. “You never know.”


Kori’s ability to hear the earth whispering came in handy.

By halfway through the afternoon, we’d managed to find two pits.

Nobody alive, but one of them held a corpse. Kori stared at it hard for a minute and then said, “Not a witch. Shifter of some sort.”

I looked at the corpse and tried to get a feel, but the life had been gone too long. I could read a person’s energy, but it was tied into the soul and the soul had been gone quite a while.

“Probably another stray cat or wolf,” I said tiredly, rubbing the back of my neck, thinking of my own cat.

He’d left early. It had been barely seven when he’d pulled out in that long black car and it was a bit of a drive to Orlando—two to three hours if traffic wasn’t bad. He would have been there by ten. It was crawling up on three now, meaning she’d had him for hours.

A hand touched my shoulder. “Stop it, kid. He knew what he was going back to.”

“Did he have a choice?”

“He’s the one who chooses to stay with an Alpha half the Assembly sees as bat-shit crazy.” Kori shrugged and turned away.

“If she’s that bad, why doesn’t the Assembly handle it?”

“Because she keeps her clan in line and doesn’t let her crazy outside of it,” Kori said, shrugging. “If she was like the rat you tangled with a few years ago, they’d intervene. Hell, sometimes I think people wait for that…and shit, if she’d come gunning for you? The Assembly could shut her down. Maybe that’s why Es did what she did, offering you the protection of the house, even as she jabbed at the bitch. She’ll snap sooner or later, and once she does, the laws will fall into place and she can be dealt with. She’s getting worse, I’ve heard.”

“She’s bad enough already,” I muttered, scratching at my arm.

“Yeah. But you can’t force your boy to do anything.” She sighed and settled into silence, her eyes taking on a flat look. I could feel her magic tingling my skin again.

Searching the earth, I suspected.

Something rustled in the grass and I grimaced as I caught the long body of a gator coming out of the water. Its black eyes stared at me and then moved away, headed off in another direction. Good gator. No food here. None at all.

Something whistled through the air. Familiar—

“I…”

Kori’s voice stopped.

I looked over at her.

For a minute, the red stain on her shirt made no sense.

But the glint of bloody iron protruding from her shirt made sense. A lot.

She toppled forward. I tried to catch her before she tumbled into the pit, but I couldn’t.

With a scream, I called my sword even as I flung myself to the ground.

The volley of arrows that came flying at me didn’t let up for a long, long time.