Lost Soul (DarkWorld: SkinWalker Book 2) (23 page)

"Tie her to the radiator," came a familiar gravelly voice.

"You must be Yanuk." I said, enjoying the look on his hideous bull-like face. Something flapped behind him as if his annoyance fed through to some part of his body. The lamia grabbed my hands and pulled so I had to walk backward until I reached the wall. He tied my ropes tightly to the radiator pipe and took a sharp step back as if the thought of being near me revolted him.

The feeling is so mutual, dude.

I sat on the radiator and faced the demon king of the Greylands. Yanuk. He'd turned to face his desk and I saw what had flapped at his back. A pair of gigantic batwings. Dark and crinkly looking, and very vampiric.

Lifting my chin, I waited for him to turn to face me, wondering again why none of them had bothered to take my weapons. Were they not afraid I would escape the ties and relieve them of their heads? Or were they way too confident for their own good?

Underestimating me was not a good thing.

I glanced around at Saleem, who stood calmly held tight between the gargoyle and another lamia. He met my eyes and wiggled an eyebrow. I knew before he disappeared in a flash of orange sparks and tiny flames that he was ready to go. He'd cased the place out, seen the weapons, counted the demons.

He'd better be back soon though or it might be his head I relieve from his body.

***

As soon as Saleem disappeared, the room went silent. The demons looked from one to the other avoiding the gaze of their master.

Yanuk cleared his throat. "Did any one of you imbeciles think to ensure he wasn't also a demon?"

"Boss, we had no idea he was a demon too. What the heck is he?"

"He's a djinn, you idiot." Yanuk bit the words out like bullets and the demon flinched as if he'd felt the impact of each one.

"I'm sorry, boss. I haven't seen a djinn before." He turned to the gargoyle. "Have you?"

The gargoyle shook his head and stared at Yanuk.

"Very well, he is gone. He'
d be stupid to return to save her. And the odds are stacked against him." Then he turned to me, his amber eyes swilling in his bullish face. Here too, among these demons, color was rampant but Yanuk was all red. Skin and clothing and even what should have been the whites of his eyes.

He walked to me, glanced back at the demons gathered behind him, and backhanded his fist into my cheek. I was sure I heard my neck crack as my head snapped back so hard I saw stars and smelled blood.

The demons snickered amongst them as I brought my head slowly back down, hoping he hadn't broken my neck. Pain flamed at the base of my skull, but everything seemed to be intact.

"Now, tell me, girl, what is it you are doing here in the Greylands? Alive of all things," he asked almost kindly, his voice softening a little. As if that made a difference to me.

"None of your business." I didn't plan on making things easy for him. Besides, I wanted to play for time until Saleem got back.

He slammed his beefy fist into my other cheek and my jaw spasmed. My eye throbbed and my vision blurred. He'd burst a blood vessel in my eye, the bastard. "What do you want? This is my land, and as far as I can see, you are trespassing. What with
you being alive and all."

"I heard this wasn't really your land anymore."

He slammed his fist into my gut and I doubled over. I felt the stab wound in my side split open and gush, wet and sticky. I hacked for breath and tasted blood again. More this time. My head spun with the pain and I tried to right myself. If I fell over, I'd probably break both my arms.

"Now, who would be telling you such tall tales, my dear?" he asked, smiling ever so sweetly, revealing spiky little white teeth.

"Your little lackey, Lester." I spat blood as I spoke.

"Ah yes, Lester. I take it you were the one who dispatched him for me?"

"He deserved it." Another punch to my gut. It felt like he hit me with fists of iron. The blood began to seep farther into my clothing, and when he took his fist away, he smiled to see his red knuckles moist.

He stared at me, then began to slowly lick each knuckle clean. I shuddered. "Lester was mine to kill, girl. And you spoiled my fun."

"Sorry. Had I known . . ." I trailed off thinking maybe I would be better off shutting up.

Yanuk came closer, grabbed my chin, and lifted it until I stared right into his ruby red eyes. "You will talk or I will have to make this very, very painful for you." I was tempted to transform my jaws and teeth and clamp my canines around Yanuk's filthy throat, but I swallowed and controlled the urge
.

What I did allow myself was to release my panther claws. Hidden behind my back my deadly sharp nails sprouted and I began scraping away at the ropes thread by thread. It was slow work as the ropes were oily and a little slippery, but I kept at it while I maintained eye-contact with the bull-demon.

I swallowed, my throat growing taut as he kept my neck bent. "I'm looking for someone." I got the words out and punctuated the sentence with a cough. It happened to be a cough right in Yanuk's face, but I wasn't that concerned with manners or propriety. Seemed he wasn't either. He let go of me and just wiped the spatter of blood off his face. Then he smiled. "Now, was that so hard. So tell me who are you looking for?" He paused then took a short sharp breath. "You know you remind me so much of another living girl I met recently in the Greylands."

For Ailuros' sake, not another person finding a resemblance between Greer and me. "Really?" I coughed again to hide the dryness in my tone. He looked at me sharply, his fists tightening. Then he must have decided I hadn't meant it as he moved away, settled himself on the edge of his desk and folded his arms over his generously bulked-up chest.

"So are you going to tell me who she is or do I have to beat it out of you?"

I stared at him, my head spinning. I was feeling far too faint to be messing about with a bull-demon as powerful as Yanuk. A dull throbbing in my arm teased me with the knowledge that the poison was taking its toll again. Where the hell was Saleem already? "Just a girl I know."

"Ah. A mighty fine coincidence. A living female arriving here in the Greylands not too long after another living female arrives. So you have come to save her, haven't you?"

I shook my head. "I just needed to know where she was. I have no idea who she is. I'm just doing my job."

"So tell me . . ." Yanuk came to stand beside me. He bent to my cheek and drew in a deep breath, sniffing my skin all the way from chin to temple. The susurration of air was long and ominous. "Walker, tell me really who you are?"

He knew what I was. My heart thudded against my ribs. "I'm a tracker. They sent me to find her."

"They sent a Walker to find another Walker?" He nodded to himself. "I suppose that makes sense. But I'm not so sure I believe that you don't know my little friend Greer. Now that I think about it, you bear a little resemblance to her."

I flinched. I'd never thought I looked like Greer at all. And nobody had ever remarked on such a thing. I'd been happy without any resemblance to her. Ever
.

"Probably a Walker thing. I know from her file and the scent patterns they gave me that she's a panther like me." I offered that piece of information hoping it would waylay his suspicions. Or at least give him something to think about.

Yanuk shrugged. "Whatever the case may be, it makes little difference to me and my needs. As for Greer, her days on this plane are numbered. She may have entered the Greylands alive, but she will be leaving it very dead. She has taken more than she is entitled to. She has swooped in on our territory and has taken advantage of our hospitality and soon she will understand that we will not accept it any longer." Yanuk spoke as if he was reciting a speech. I wasn't convinced that he believed all of his own words. Something was off. But he did seem to have a plan. But whatever Yanuk was planning, he was also going to get what was coming to him. "Anyway, who you are is of little consequence to me. You are trespassing and you will, of course, pay the price. We, here in the Greylands, have upheld the laws of the High Council for centuries. No living person passes through the Veil."

"But the High Council is who sent me." That got me a startled look
.

If a red-skinned demon's face could pale his would have. He couldn't know for sure. I could see it in his eyes. The doubt, the fear of the possibility I was telling the truth. He decided to hedge his bets and nodded with a small grin. "Ah, then see, we are on the same side. Perhaps we can come to a mutual understanding?"

"One which does not include you using me as a punching bag?" My ropes were almost free but I left the last hard tug for a better moment.

"You must understand I do what I have to do to maintain the status quo. It would have been much easier had you told us why you were here in the first place." He smiled but there was a hesitation in his voice, a tinge of fear, of worry.

"The High Council does not hire fools." I bit back, thinking I needed to be a bit more firm. And it worked. He turned his gaze away, chastised.

"Fine. If you came for Greer, I can help you get her out. We both have the same goal in mind. Of course, my aim was to make her stay here a legitimate one, but if the High Council wants her alive, then who am I to challenge that?" He stood up and looked at me. "They do want her alive, don't they?"

I nodded. Yanuk must not be very bright to be so ready to offer me his help and a truce at that. For all I knew, it was a grand setup with the goal being to get me killed. But I smiled and inclined my head. Let him think I agreed to his deal.

Yanuk clapped his hands together and stepped to me.

A flash of orange fire disturbed the air to my right and Saleem arrived bearing gifts. I tugged hard at my ropes and my hands came free.

I didn't miss the look of shock in Yanuk's eyes as he noticed my lack of bindings. Saleem tossed me my bow and pistol and the throng of shocked demons came to life.

Yanuk backtracked a little, giving his men first dibs to die. I shot the first demon who came at me—the lamia. Too bad. I'd wanted to behead him.

The gargoyle approached Saleem, who had his back turned, fighting off a horned demon who'd captured him by the throat with his meaty paws.

The gargoyle raised a hideous-looking, jagged-edged creation. I shot him between the eyes and the sword went clattering to the ground. The lamia lay crumbling to dust on his boss's carpet.

A shout of anger beside me and a flash of light in my peripheral vision confirmed that Saleem had done a disappearing act. I turned to the horned fiend and shot him in the head too. The gun was proving worth its while.

Saleem appeared on the other side of two demons I couldn't identify and he stabbed both in the back at the same time. They fell against each other, slamming their heads together as they dropped.

The two remaining lamia approached me, both twirling evil-looking swords of their own. The gun didn't seem to be bothering them too much considering how fast it was dispatching their friends. I aimed at the nearest demon and the gun clicked—out of ammo. Sinking to the ground, I grabbed my scimitar in one hand and the demon sword in the other, then made a quick sweep at knee height.

One demon stepped back in time, the other suffered two severed legs. The scimitar could still slice through bone like butter.

Thank you, Tara.

Saleem had his hands full with one last demon, so I concentrated on the one heading straight at me. He growled as he glanced around at his fallen comrades, as he probably realized he should have run while he had the chance. Like his coward boss.

Too late.

I slashed the demon blade in a tight curve as the lamia ran at me. His head came tumbling off and rolled under the desk while his body kept running toward the window behind me. I stepped aside and he crashed into the glass, shattering the lowest panes.

All around us demons were disintegrating and disappearing in lumps of green goo or piles of dust.

"What the heck was that?" I asked, toeing the horned demon.

"He's an oni demon." I glared at the horns and the hairy blue face of the human-looking creature as it disintegrated. Saleem continued, "And that was a gargoyle."

"Yeah, I had the feeling I knew that one." I thought of Yanuk. "And their boss with the horns. He's not oni."

"Nope, He is a shedu, a winged bull-demon."

I shuddered. "Yes, I saw those wings. Can he fly with them?"

"No reason why he can't." Saleem shrugged. Then held me by the arm as I began to slip. I'd ignored the lightheadedness and the bleeding for too long. "You're hurt."

"Well, it took you long enough to get back here." I touched my side and my fingers came away soaked red. "I took a few blows to the gut. Probably a few blows too many considering . . ." I slipped again.

"Easy, I got you. Just try to stay awake."

"Pity you can't transport me back to Tara's place," I complained.

"Who said we had to have it easy?" Saleem snorted and supported me as we both shuffled slowly out of the warehouse and down the street.