Scorched Fury: A SkinWalker Novel #5 (DarkWorld: SkinWalker) (17 page)

While inside, my mind and gut were in turmoil. Something was so very, very wrong.

My throat began to close, cutting off my air supply and I took a discreet breath, maintaining my composure.

I kept my smile bright and gaze neutral even though I knew that this woman, whoever she was, was not Sienna Westin. Not anymore.

She was a shapechanger, using her mage power to veil herself with Sienna's face and body. She had no idea who we were, but she was testing us.

We had to be very careful.

But I also had to ensure that she had no idea that I was onto her.

So I relaxed against the back of the booth and played with my ice-cream, spooning and talking, as the room grew warmer.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Hey Lil's. We need to find a place to stay. Bryan will send out a search party if we don't make that Skype session."

Without a blink my trusty sidekick nodded. "Oh, yeah. I could so do without him nagging me today."

"Who's Bryan?"

I paused, praying that we both didn't answer at the same time. But Lily pretended to be searching for something in her backpack.

"Bryan's my husband. He didn't even want us to take this trip. Two girls on their own, seeing the sights. So that means he's super worried." I rolled my eyes. "Makes us Skype every night. Swears he'll call the cops if we're so much as one minute late."

"Men," said Lily, giving an inelegant snort.

Faux-Sienna snorted too. "Yeah. Can't live with them . . ."

"Can't live without them." Lily and I laughed loudly and Faux-Sienna joined in. Her mirth was fake and she failed to hide her annoyance.

She scooted along the seat and pouted. "I'm really sorry, but my brother will be waiting for me back at the house. I promised to go sailing with him." She paused as if she expected us to look back at her, aghast at the mention of a brother.

When neither of us even registered a raised eyebrow or a suggestion of a blink, she got to her feet. And that's when I saw it. The strange shimmer around her body. Invisible in the bright sunlight, but to a trained eye, a dead giveaway.

We waved her off, bright smiles blooming even as she left the shop and headed outside to a waiting limo.

As the car disappeared down the street, Lily opened her mouth. But I lifted a finger and she clamped her jaws shut slowly.

"I'm pooped," I said leaning against the back of the seat.

"But we just got here," whined Lily, raising her voice for good measure.

"We can find a place to crash, then we can go exploring okay?"

"You're so boring," Lily said, rolling her eyes as slouched and slurped on her milkshake.
 

"We can always go back home," I suggested airily.

"No way. We just got here." Whining again.

"So behave. Let's walk this junk food off then find an information centre to see what's interesting around here." I used a bossy, overbearing tone that made the people in the table beside us hide their grins.

"I knew I should have gone to Lake Tahoe with Bree and the girls," Lily grumbled, getting to her feet and grabbing her rucksack a little too hard. The guns clinked together as the bag bounced against the seat.

I curbed the instinctive urge to give the bag a concerned look, and Lily a much more annoyed one. Instead, I gathered my things and headed outside.

Lily was right behind me, scanning the streets with curious touristy looks. We maintained the cover of two sisters on a tour of the little town.

At the end of the street, Lily glanced down at her phone, a strange look on her face.

"What?" I whispered.

"You know how the intelligence people can clone phones and shit."

"Yeah?"

"What if they did that to ours?"

"If they did, what would they find out?"

She looked up at at me, wary, worried. Scared.

"Geez Lil's did you rob a bank or something? You're getting all jumpy about nothing." I grabbed her sleeve and tugged. "Let's go find a place to stay. I want to soak in a tub for a while."

We headed off the main strip, turning right into a stunning road that was the epitome of fall perfection. Leaves of every color from brown to russet to gold covered the sidewalk and much of the streets.

"Doesn't look like people sweep their streets around here," said Lily as she looked around.

"It's gorgeous," I said, a threatening note to my words. There was something strange about the street, and the edge to Lily's voice told me that she was not oblivious.

"Of course it is. But it looks like home, Kai. I wanted to go somewhere different."

"Like where," I played along, a little distracted.

"Bali maybe?"

"What's in Bali that's so fascinating?"

Lily just shook her head. We were both tiring of this game. The run had drained us and the shock of feeling the energy of the mage had taken its toll on me too. We needed a place to lay low, and I wasn't sure we'd find it here in the town. I was beginning to feel like we were caught in some kind of time-warp.

"Okay." We paused at a wooden bench and wiped off a layer of leaves. "See if you can find a place to stay," I said as I slid the dagger a fraction of an inch from its sheath. It didn't indicate any danger and as I held my phone to it, I could see no paranormal interference. I knew the dagger wasn't a glorified paranormal detector but I'd hoped it would sense any form of danger.

With no luck I figured I'd call Baz.

He answered on the second ring. "Hey, honey," I said, laying on the sweet, hoping he'd play along. My tone was pitched higher than normal so I hoped he'd sense something was up.

"Hey you," he said. I could almost see his dark brows rise in confusion.

"Bryan, I know we said we'd Skype tonight but we need to find a place to stay first."

"Nothing yet?" he asked.

"Nope. We almost found something but we were wrong. Reception here is sketchy."

"Want me to look for something for you?"

"Yeah. A bed and breakfast place would be nice. Something without bugs please."

"Oh, yeah. Sure." I almost heaved a sigh of relief when he got what I meant.

I heard him tapping away. Then he said, "You're clean. And in case you weren't, I set a rerouter on your phone. They can't tap it but they'll be able to follow it. Only they'll be looking in Timbuktu and Shenzhen first."

"Thanks. Did you find anything else?" No time to waste.

Lily was still sitting beside me on the park bench, fiddling with her phone. I listened to Baz, pulling my panther senses to the surface, scanned our surroundings. As far as I could tell there was no one on the street or close enough to leave a scent. Unless of course they had had the presence of mind to stay downwind.

That would mean that they knew who we were. What we were.

Baz grunted. "There is a good possibility that you're in the wrong place." When I said nothing he responded. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. We knew that there was a good chance that this was a wild goose chase. You can only do so much."

I caught myself quickly as I realized we'd forgotten exactly what type of conversation we were meant to be having. "Look, we'll come straight back home. But there's one thing that I need to do before we leave."

"What's that?" asked Baz, worried now, probably imagining some hare-brained scheme. The guy had no faith.

"Nothing much. I just saw something . . . interesting." Lily and I shared a worried glance.
 

He promised to send us any further information, and I rang off, sliding the phone back into my pocket as I got to my feet. "Lil's, we need to make tracks."

Her agreement glowed in her eyes. We both knew it was time to call time out.

CHAPTER 23

W
E
BOTH
GOT
UP
AND
BEGAN
to walk away from the strip to the edge of town. Once there we'd drop into shifter speed and get out of there.

A few feet ahead was an old house, and as we drew closer I noticed the garden. The roses drooped, heads, dried and dark. A tulip-type plant that glowed with a strange purple luster seemed to dominate the entire garden.

The flower distracted me, so the woman seemed to appear out of nowhere, her glamor draped over her like a gown. "Can I help you ladies?" she asked, smiling widely. Wide enough that I made out the strangely smooth teeth, the too unblemished skin, the reed slim form to her body.

I glanced at Lily, wondering if she noticed but she seemed oblivious.
 

"Yes, we're looking for a place to get a room. Could you direct us please?" I had to come up with a response out of the blue. First the shape changer and now a Fae? Something was up in Sand Beach.

"Not from around here I take it?" she asked. I shook my head, refusing to say more. "There's one down the road, about two blocks on the left. That's Mari Santiago. She'll make you comfortable."

"Thanks," I said, herding Lily out of the small garden and down the road. "What's wrong with you?" I hissed in her ear once we were well away from garden. The Fae still stood at the open gate, staring at us.

"Nothing. I was just too shocked to say anything. Besides Tara and Gracie, I've never seen a Fae before."

"That wasn't her real form."

"You can see her too?"

I frowned. "See her too? What do you mean?"

Lily shrugged. "I thought you could see what she truly looked like."

"I can see past glamor yes, but her magic was strong. It's not common to have sight that strong, even in a Walker."

Lily shrugged. "Well, I could see her anyway."

"Wow."

"What's
wow
about it?"

I pinched her arm. "You have the Sight. Wait until I get back home. Mom and Grams will faint when I tell them."

"What's so special about it?" Her curiosity seemed to wane.

"Walkers with true Sight are rare. Just about as rare as humans with Sight."

Lily's lashes dropped and she shrugged, still keeping pace with me. "A power like that isn't worth all that much. Not as if I can throw fire, see the future."

"It's still a rare gift, Lily. Nothing to sniff at." I couldn't help my admonishing tone, and even when I realized that Lily would no doubt give up that Sight just to get her Lynx to come to the fore, I was irritated.

People never got to choose what they wanted in life. It's given to them, handed over like a gift. And what else can we do with those prizes than to make use of them, enjoy them?

Lily didn't seem to see that, but there wasn't time to discuss it.

We were about to cross the street when a gust of wind caught my ponytail and slapped it against my face, ends dragging almost harshly against my cheek.

I blinked.

Touched my cheek in surprise at the vehemence of the air.

My fingers came away streaked with blood.

Lily gasped, her eyes wide, staring first at my fingers then my face.

Around us, a dark wind gusted, lifting leaves and sand from the sidewalk, drawing them into a swirling tornado of debris. Before I could warn Lily, the tornado sped to us, exploding in a shower of dirt. I'd shaded my eyes in time but it did little to protect my skin. The already shredded skin burned as dust skimmed the surface, taking a second layer of flesh with it.

Lily cried out, a grating, pained sound that pulled at my panic. I reached for her, feeling her fingers grab hold of mine, clutching as the wind gusted harder, thrusting against our bodies so that we were bent over trying not to fall, or worse, be blown off down the street like tumbleweed.

My face bled, but I ignored it as I drew on my panther senses, trying to get a better sense of what was around us. My guess was an Air Mage or an Ethereal Fae, someone filled with righteous anger from the feel of it.

Another gust had us pinned against the fence, head and torso bent back over the low wall. And as I stared into the whirling dust, a shape began to take form. And a man stepped from its depths.

Not any kind of man I'd ever seen.

Lily let out a soft gasp.

His skin was shadow, dark and silky, undulating as he walked as if he wore the darkness like a suit. Only his eyes gleamed, like twin moons in a face as dark as night. He raised his hands, and each contained a fat black tornado of shadows. Within them spun pieces of glass, metal spikes and an assortment of other sharp objects I'd prefer to remain ignorant of.

At my hip, something vibrated. A low steady hum that confused me. Then I stiffened.

The Glyhs.

I fought the pressure of the wind, shifting my hand across my body to grab hold of the dagger. It glowed, edged in a faint blue light.

The shadow man paused, his pale eyes shifting to stare at the Glyhs. Good. At least he knew what he was up against.

Not that it stopped him. He seemed wary of the weapon, but determined to complete his mission. I gripped the handle of the dagger tightly and waited as he drew closer.

The shadow man lifted a hand and Lily and I were tossed into the air. We flew a dozen yards down the street, smacking hard against stone walls and wood fences alike. I heard something crack as we hit the sidewalk and I wanted to laugh, purely because I had no idea if it was me or Lily who'd just broke.