Lost Soul (DarkWorld: SkinWalker Book 2) (25 page)

"A few days ago, I can't recall how long—all the days are a few days ago to me." I nodded at the apology but he still hadn't really looked at my face. "She got a weird feeling, felt like someone was talking in her head. And then it happened again and she said it was like she could hear a woman speaking to her, asking her if she was okay, telling her she will soon be safe and not to be afraid."

"Nerina." I said.

He nodded. "When Nerina spoke to her, Greer got a little crazy. She was so angry. Said her family must be looking for her, and she knew her Goody Two-Shoes, perfect little Alpha sister would come, and that we needed to start being more alert to the newcomers. She
set more ghosts to keep an eye out and watch for new arrivals and just anything odd in general. She suspected that her sister would arrive in the Greylands looking for her, and then you and your friend came. Greer wasn't sure who you two were. At first she thought you were her sister, but then Yanuk just told her you worked for the High Council, and she got a bit worried." He paused. "Sometimes it's hard to tell what she's thinking. She has these moments when she goes totally insane and says things that don't make any sense at all."

"Did she hurt you?" I gritted my teeth, swearing Greer would pay if she ever laid a hand on the boy.

He shook his head, but I saw the lie in the quick blink of his eye. I shook his arm.

"Okay, once. She slapped me once. That's all."

"Are you defending her?" I snapped.

"She isn't right in the head. How do you expect me to blame her for everything she's doing?"

My eyes narrowed but I had no argument to that. I'd just made the same excuse for Skates. "What did she want you to do when you saw us?"

"She wanted me to lead you to Yanuk. She thought she could get rid of you easily that way. That Yanuk would kill you for trespassing and her job would be done. I guess she didn't count on you being as smart and strong as you are." He grinned.

"What have you told her? From what I know, master and slave can sense each other but you can't communicate unless you are face to face right?" He nodded. "So have you seen her? And what have you told her about us?"

"How did you call them to the house?" Saleem cut in, his voice cold and hard. Not as forgiving as I was.

"When I went to case the warehouse out, I flitted next door and gave a message to the old woman ghost there. She took the message to Greer, who would have given it to Yanuk."

"You are a fool." Saleem surged forward, putting his face next to the boy's, gripping his chin and lifting his face upward. "Do you have any idea what they did to her? Look at her. They beat her black and blue and made her wounds bleed all over again."

Skates scanned Saleem's face and though his face tightened, defensive and angry and guilty, he didn't retaliate. Then he looked at my face, probably realizing only then the extent of my beating. My left jaw was swollen and the right side of my face including my eye had doubled in size. Somewhere in the tight, pulpy skin was my bloodshot eye. Then his lower lip quivered.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't realize she would send Yanuk after you. I thought she wanted them to bring you to her. She wouldn't have done that to you."

"No she wouldn't have because if she so much as looked at me, I—" I stopped myself. For someone who wasn't supposed to know Greer, I was getting a bit too emotional. I breathed and calmed myself. My panther nudged for release, but I ignored her. Not now.

"As long as she didn't hurt you," I ended the semi-rant lamely.

"What's her next plan?" Saleem asked.

"She wants to get to talk to you. She's dying to know who you are."

"Have you seen her then?"

He nodded. "Yes, after the demons took you back to Yanuk, I went straight to her thinking she'd have you. But you weren't there and she was happy to have sent you and your friend to your deaths at Yanuk hands. But it wasn't much later that Yanuk arrived to say you'd killed all the demons and that you had escaped."

"Bet she loved that." I laughed softly, strangely happy to have thwarted Greer's plans in some way.

"Yeah, she was screeching mad." Skates made circles at his temple with his forefinger and crossed his eyes at the same time.

I found it strange to think of Greer behaving badly. She'd always been so serene and elegant, so composed. But then I remember her blazing eyes before she jumped through the Wraith's portal. I remembered the hate in her eyes when she looked at Mom.

Maybe Greer wasn't exactly who I thought she was anymore.

***

I looked at Skates and he met my eyes head on. "Thank you. For telling me the truth." I leaned forward and patted his arm, moving the stone away from the solid ghost boy and slipping it into my pocket. His body grew shimmery, then a little transparent and gradually became ghostly again. I felt a little rush of sadness as he became colorless and see-through once more.

I gave him the chance to leave but he didn't disappear.
Then he nodded sharply. "I'll take you. It's the least I can do." He looked at me and said, "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Jeremy materialized behind Skates. I hadn't realized he'd been in the room all along. It didn't matter anyway
.

"We already have the address. You know that. And we know the way. You don't have to come," I said. It was the truth. There was no real reason for him to come with us except for him to put himself in harms way in case things got messy.

Skates stood and said, "I know. I still want to come. Can we just go?"

I nodded and got to my feet, avoiding Saleem's eyes. I didn't want to get into anything with him right now. We followed Skates out of the building. The route home was familiar enough
.

I entered the building, a tiny bit disoriented having to go left instead of right to the stairs. We ascended the stairs slowly, and as we neared my landing, I withdrew my bow, slipping in a demon vial. I edged toward the wall and peered through the wooden banister at the guard outside my door. I gave myself a mental shake—should I really be thinking about the apartment as mine?

I crouched down as I neared the last step, aimed, and released the trigger. The demon grunted as the vial impacted his flesh, and within seconds, he was a pile of ash and ember, which slowly disappeared into nothing.

So Tara's poison sped up the disintegration process. I liked that.

We hurried to the door, and though I placed an ear to the wood, no sound filtered through. I turned the handle expecting to find it locked, but it shifted. Greer must be pretty confident that her guard would do a solid job of defending the entrance to the apartment. Pity she'd have to be disappointed.

Skates hovered beside me as if he intended to come in, but I waved him off, glaring at him. He moved away but didn't look too disappointed.

I opened the door, letting it swing wide with a little push. Greer sat at my dining room table, on the left of the doorway instead of the right, of course. She didn't look up until Saleem and I moved into the room.

When she did, all color drained from her face. "What are you doing here?" she whispered, her face twisted with what looked like shock, followed closely by worry.

"I came to get you." I didn't trust myself to say much more. I watched her face as she got to her feet and walked slowly to me.

When she threw her arms around my neck and sobbed, I flinched. I stilled the urge to grab her arms from me and throw them away. What was she playing at?

"You have no idea what a stupid thing you've done. You're in danger here." Then she frowned, staring at me long and hard. Too long.

"Were you the ones who arrived here a few days ago?" Her tone had cooled so fast I began to suspect she lacked a solid hold on her sanity. Her mood changes seemed a bit too fast to be healthy.

I nodded and glanced at Saleem. "I did have company when I arrived."

"Dear Ailuros," Greer whispered. "I sent them to watch and to deliver the intruders to Yanuk. I had no idea it was you. I'm so sorry, Kai." She was close enough to get the full brunt of my black eye and pummeled face and grimaced as she examined the damage.

When her eyes filled with tears at the sight of my injuries, I moved away, suddenly uncomfortable being so close to my sister. Must be the blazing spark of distrust in me.

"You know, Yanuk wouldn't have done that to you if you hadn't come." My skin rippled with ice as she spoke, her words freezing me over as much as her tone. Of course it was my fault. I snapped my gaze back at her so fast my jaw tingled with pain, but I ignored it. Greer glared at me, her eyes cold, her expression colder. There she went with her mood change again. One second caring and worried, the next icy cold and vicious. What was going on with her?

"What the hell do you mean, Greer? I came to take you home," I bit out, anger flaring within my veins. Ungrateful bitch.

She snorted. "I knew that. I knew someone was coming, but I didn't think it would be you. Perfect little Kailin, always wants to run out and save the world."

"You don't know what you're talking about. I promised Mom I'd find you and bring you home."

"Mom?" Greer laughed coldly. "What does she care? She betrayed us. Why would I give a damn about her?"

"Because if you'd stuck around long enough, you would have heard her side of the story. She actually had a very good reason for leaving."

"I don't particularly care to know why she left." Greer raised her hand before I could speak. And rightly so. How would she handle knowing Mom left because of me?

But it didn't stop me from being angry with her. As she turned to walk away, I snapped at her, "And by the way, that was a pretty dumb thing to do, jumping through the portal. You are bloody lucky to be alive."

"Don't you tell me what you think is dumb or not. You have no right. Do you even know who I am? You think you can just waltz right in here and tell me what to do?" Greer vibrated with fury as she spoke. Flecks of spit flew from her lips and I stepped away.

"Greer, you need to calm down." I spoke knowing my face showed exactly how I felt, disapproving, shocked.

She glared at me, her face pinched, skin tight, as if she were about to claw out my eyes, but something happened in her eyes. She blinked then refocused on my face. When she spoke her voice was shaky, rattled. "I'm sorry, Kai. I . . . I think . . ."

"I think you've spent way too long in this place. It's time to go home."

She nodded and looked around the apartment. "I can't leave, Kai."

"What do you mean? Of course you can leave—you just come with me."

"No, that's not what I meant. I can't go with you." She seemed uncertain and a little sad but with her emotional extremes she'd just displayed, I didn't trust her. The truth was I had stopped trusting her when I found out she was keeping company with Brand and Uncle Niko, happily going along with Niko's plan to experiment on
Walkers. But I refused to go home without her.

"I didn't come all this way to leave without you." I stepped toward her.

Greer flung her hands out, swiping me away, fiery anger burning and dying in the blink of an eye. "Fine. I'll come."

Behind me, Saleem released a long breath. Guess he'd felt the tension between us too. My eyes narrowed as I watched Greer's face. Would she go and change her mind again? I beckoned Saleem. The sooner we got moving, the better. Greer would have less time to decide to change her mind.

"Let's go then," I said, heading for the door.

There wasn't anything she needed to bring with her. She'd arrived with nothing. She followed us out, not even bothering to ask about the missing demon.

As we descended the stairs, the birdcage shuddered and began to move up. I watched the metal elevator as it rose, completely unsurprised to see Yanuk grinning at me.

Greer saw him too and hesitated, but I gripped her arm and moved her along, again surprised at her compliance. The elevator stopped at my floor and Yanuk turned to us. He grinned, wide mouth, dagger-like teeth gleaming. Then he flicked a finger off his forehead, saluting me with a strange expression on his face. His expression changed when his gaze settled on Greer. And though he knew she was leaving, he did nothing.

True to his word, Yanuk seemed happy to be rid of Greer. And though I wanted to just run up the stairs and plant my fist into his face and break his jaw, getting out of the Greylands was now my priority.

I clenched my fists and kept moving down the stairs, watching Greer as she looked up at Yanuk through the metal rails of the birdcage. She had a strange expression on her face, slightly triumphant.

Once outside the apartment, we paused as if expecting to see a horde of demons waiting for us, but the sidewalk remained empty and silent.

"Where to from here?" asked Saleem.

"Dark water," I said.

"Right." He nodded. "This is your territory. You know somewhere closer than Lockwood Park?"

I nodded. "The docks." It was closest.

Greer snorted and folded her arms. "You do realize we'll have to walk all the way there? No cars in the Greylands in case you didn't realize it." Her sarcasm grated on me, but I breathed and tried not to grit my teeth. My jaw hurt too much.