Scorched Fury: A SkinWalker Novel #5 (DarkWorld: SkinWalker) (16 page)

"Fine." I stood stiffly and pulled on a suede leather jacket. It crackled as it settled against my body. "But you'd better keep up."

Lily snorted. "I'm Pariah, but I can still run, you know."

We headed into the living room and I smiled as Lily threw her backpack over her shoulder.

"What? Did you bring every single piece of weaponry that you own?"

Certainly not the first time.

"Never hurts to be prepared."

"Always hurts to have too much choice." I raised an eyebrow. "Use what works for you so it comes naturally in a fight. You don't want to be reaching for a gun, then have to struggle to find what you need. Or grab a dagger and waste time remembering what to do. Your muscle memory is still a little too young."

Lily shook her head, a little impatient as she rolled her eyes. "Geez, Kai. The bag is just backup. In case we run out, or need more."

I smiled and said, "Let's hope you don't stab yourself in the back while running."

"Way ahead of you, sister." She opened the backpack to reveal a thick leather lining.

"Smart thinking." I gave the bag a nod then asked. "You have enough ammo?" I gave the two pistols and three revolvers a pointed look.

"Yup. And I'll grab more if you think we may need it."

I nodded absently as she hurried back into the bedroom. She was back in less than a minute.

We locked up, then fell into shifter speed, racing out of the apartment and down the street so fast that only Superman, and demons, would be faster.

Or maybe the Fae?

CHAPTER 21

L
ILY
RAN
BESIDE
ME
,
HER
SHIFTER
speed much slower than mine. But I didn't mind compensating for her. She was so strong now, since Anjelo's death, so determined. I didn't have the right to tamp that part of her down.

We reached Bar Harbor after sunrise, using country roads and national forest routes, stopping every hour or so to catch our breaths. The advantage of being a shifter meant that even traveling at supernatural speeds, we recovered pretty fast.
 

Unless of course we were injured.

The coast was beautiful, the sand and ocean drenched in the dull morning glare. Gulls rode gusts of wind and salt coated my lips as we stood on the rise above the nearest beach. It wasn't Sand Beach, but it wouldn't take long to find the place. I checked my phone for the coordinates Baz had sent, then plugged them into the GPS.

"We're about a mile from Sand Beach so let's move."

Lily stayed a little behind me, following my lead as we ran.

And when we did stop on the hillside above the beach, the view caught my breath. The curved sandy shore was a narrow golden strip, bracketed by a verge of grass and tall fir trees, and the blue waters of the North Atlantic. The shore opposite us was a disorganized pile of rocks. All in all, it was a stunningly gorgeous beach - the perfect place to hide out.

Not that Sienna would know to hide out.

Logan hadn't mentioned trees or grass. But if Sienna had been looking out at the sea the entire time, he would have missed it.

I shook my head and stared down at the empty beach. Hidden by the firs along the rise we watched the shore. "You think she'll come here this early in the morning?"

I shrugged. "It's a Saturday. Who knows?"

"Doesn't she have a job or something?"

"We don't know. And besides she's only twenty. She may be studying somewhere and Logan just caught her in one place on a road trip somewhere." I sighed. "This could just be a wild goose chase."

Or worse. Sienna could very well be studying abroad and that beach could be Mykonos or Ireland or Durban for all we knew.

"But we have to chase it." Lily nodded then glanced back at the sand. A gust of wind threw sand in the air and I heard the rustling of the grains as they landed. "You want to get closer?" Lily asked.

I studied the shoreline all the way until the rocks. "I'm not sure we should reveal ourselves so soon. Or at all."

"Nobody knows we're here, Kai. Only Baz, and you swore him to secrecy."

I grunted, then headed down the hillside and out of the trees.

"So what's our cover story?" asked Lily, tramping behind me.

"Sisters? Taking a road trip?"

"How do I explain not being in school?"

"You're not as young as you look?" I said, raising my eyebrows. At her smirk I said, "Sorry, you're the one who wanted to tag along."

She stuck out her tongue and we continued to pick our way towards the narrow strip of grass. "Anyway, sisters on a road trip is probably a better cover than loner."

"Yeah, especially considering you look a little too badass to be safe." I raised my eyebrows, amused.

"Probably the BO." Lily snorted then evaded a loose punch that I aimed at her shoulder. We were laughing as we got to the sand, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

A girl approached from the other side of the beach, her eyes narrowed against the harsh morning light.

"You think that's her?"

Her dark clothes were more goth than even Lily could hope to be. From her shitkickers which she hadn't bothered to remove on the sand, to the chains on her purple and white checked skirt, to the spiderwebbed fingerless gloves and the dark eyeliner, she was the quintessentially goth girl. And beautiful.

Even the streaks of indigo and mauve and teal in her hair only helped to make her look just perfect.

"Could go either way. Although how many people lurk around on the beach, alone at sunrise."
 

For a twin of Logan, her hair was dark, but a more than cursory glance at her roots confirmed it as a wig.

Not hiding out?

"Be careful okay?" I said to Lily from the side of my mouth. "If it's her then she's more powerful than Logan."

"And more dangerous," said Lily dryly before she gave Sienna a shy wave, accompanying it with a shy smile. "Hi."

Lily's breathy, hesitant greeting put a smile on the girl's face, and she drew to a stop.

"Hi." She glanced at me, then back at Lily. "You guys not from around here?"

Lily shook her head. "Nope. We're from Nebraska. We saw this photograph on this site online - you know the one people post photos on from their travels?"

Goth girl nodded, a little smile turning up her mouth. Lily must have taken an acting class somewhere along the line because I could have sworn her accent was taking on a little bit of a country lilt. "Saw the photo and had to see it for ourselves. And boy are we glad."

"It is a beautiful place," she said softly. "Are you here for a while?"

I shook my head. "Just a few days." Sticking my hand out I said, "I'm Kai O'Neil. She's my sister Lily."

I wasn't sure why I used our real first names, from the widening of Lily's eyes I could tell she was more than amused at my made-up last name. She could hardly blame me. I'd totally forgotten about names and had to come up with something on the fly. So much for smart and experienced super-agent.

"Sienna Blake." So it was her. "You guys came at the wrong time of the year if you wanted to work on your tans." She grinned, allowing a cheeky smile to come through. She sounded relaxed, but I caught an edge of tension.

I waved my hands. "Are you kidding. I like my butt unfrozen, thanks."

Sienna laughed. "You and me both," she said with a sigh as she turned to gaze back at the water. "It makes me sad that I can't go in. The water is so calming. So peaceful."

She spoke wistfully, her voice so filled with yearning that I wondered what it was she longed for so deeply.

"So where's a good place around here to grab some breakfast?" asked Lily, making me laugh.

"Is that all you think of?"

Lily glared at me. "Food is the most important thing in the world. Besides, we haven't had breakfast yet. I'm starved."

I made a face. "Ugh. I can't think of anything worse than eating this early in the morning."

"You can have a coffee then," said Lily as if she'd decided on the whole thing.

Sienna smiled and pointed south. "There's a small strip mall a few minutes that way. I'll give you a ride there if you like."

I nodded then stared out at the lighthouse. From a distance it appeared perfect, but now that we'd gotten closer, or maybe it was the shifting of the sun, I could see the broken walls, the toppled bricks and crumbling mortar.

"What happened to the lighthouse?"

Sienna's smile faded. "It's tragic local lore." She turned and headed up the sand, slow enough that we could hear her continue with her tale. "Five decades ago, a local fisherman's wife would come here to watch for her husband's return. One morning it was storming, waves six feet high and deadly. She battled the spray and the rain to get to the lighthouse, even lit the flame to warn her husband of the danger. But it was too dark, or she was too late, or fate had other plans, and his boat crashed onto the shore as she watched. He drowned before her eyes."

"What did she do?" whispered Lily.
 

"She jumped," Sienna said simply, before walking off.

At the top of the hill, Lily followed Sienna while I paused to study the lighthouse. Waves smashed against the shores, sending fine spray reaching up to coat the rocks above. I could imagine the place, draped in the darkness of the storm, angry waves lashing out at the rocks. Claiming the boat and the man. And then the woman too.

Maybe it was the darkness of the tale or the fear within me of losing Logan, but as I stared out at the water I felt a deep, unequivocal sense of loss. I blinked away the hot rush of tears and clutched the strap of my rucksack so tight I could feel the imprint of the nylon on my palms.

Get it together Kai.

I took a breath and followed the girls.

CHAPTER 22

W
E
SAT
IN
A
SMALL
ICE
-cream shop that had probably once sold milkshakes for a dime and soda for much the same. The place was small, the walls painted a pale pink, furniture mostly chrome and pink, a very feminine version of the Hard Rock Cafe.

I stared at the customers as they streamed in, as if the day was sweltering and they were in desperate need of something cool to soothe their parched throats.

Sienna had claimed a small errand, leaving us to order, and was now weaving back through the morning rush to our table, her expression slightly strained.

Lily had decided that waffles were a suitable breakfast and oddly enough I agreed with her and had ordered my own. Maybe the run from Chicago had taken my strength. I ate quietly, listening to Lily maneuver answers from Sienna with such ease that I was beginning to realize I'd underestimated my sidekick.

"I've always wanted to see the world. What's it like out there?" She tilted her head, her eyes gleaming. She seemed different, harder somehow.

I frowned. "You make it sound like it's another world."

She laughed and spooned strawberry ice-cream into her mouth. "Sometimes it truly feels that way." She waved a hand at the shop and then pointed at the street through the glass window. "We're just a small town. And sometimes it all seems so ... claustrophobic. And yet to others it feels so filled with freedom. Probably just depends on one's personal outlook I guess." Her tone was forced and I frowned as I studied her face.

"Would you want to leave? See the world?" I asked, sharing a quick glance with Lily.

Sienna lifted a shoulder. "Maybe. I guess if I knew there was something worth seeing." She sighed so deeply that is sounded like she too had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her purple strands lifted on a gust of wind brought in as a new customer entered. "Sometimes I feel like there's something waiting for me out there, you know. Like I have a purpose that's more that's just life here."

Her sigh seemed to bring me down a notch or two. The girl had been ripped from her only family, spirited away to this tiny little town so far away. It wasn't surprising that her spirit yearned for him.

I reached over and held her hand.

"Sometimes all we can do is follow our dreams." I smiled, but I had to force my lips to hold the gentle curve. Force my eyes to reveal only pleasant grace.