Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (6 page)

Audie yanked her into his body and swung his sword as the second bird plunged downward in an eerily silent and impossibly fast attack. The thing wrapped its massive claws around the hunter’s arm and tried to lift him.

Yeira and Audie both flashed their blades as the bird managed to lift their combined weight an inch off the ledge.

Audie’s blade sliced a wide gash in the vulture’s belly and Yeira’s cut its claw cleanly off its body.

The thing rose upward with a pain-filled shriek and surged sideways, spewing dark blood as it tried to fly away.

The second vulture dove again, its wide, yellow beak opening to show a jagged, bloodied row of teeth behind the razor-sharp hook on the tip. A thin, slimy tongue swung inside the opened beak and Yeira knew from seeing one of the nasty creatures take down its prey that the foul tongue was covered in acid.

The thing dropped from the sky, a massive black and yellow dealer of death with dead red eyes, heading for Yeira. Still tangled up with the hunter and off balance, she didn’t have time to bring up her blade as the nasty thing zeroed in on her and closed the distance.

The impossible force of its strike knocked her backward so that she hit the rocky wall behind them and her head slammed against a rock.

Yeira slipped to her knees, wavering as consciousness threatened to slide away. Her vision dimmed and stars burst before her eyes. Sound and movement dulled too, fading to the background like a distant thought, and Yeira felt herself falling forward.

Iron bands wrapped around her middle and yanked, pulling her into hard heat. Then she was airborne again, the foul air of the cavern moving quickly over her as she bounced along.

Gradually she realized she was being carried and Yeira fought back the muzziness to open her eyes, looking up into the handsome and bloodied face of her rescuer. “Put me down.” Her lips moved but the words came out in a rusty whisper that she wasn’t sure was even loud enough to hear.

The hunter ignored her, still running as the sound of screaming and bloodthirsty shrieking rent the air around them.

Finally, they plunged into darkness and the hunter stopped, his broad chest heaving against her side. She blinked in the dim light, her hands shoving ineffectually at him. “Let me go, Kord.”

They plunged downward, his knee bones cracking against the rock. The hunter wobbled dangerously and his eyes rolled back in his head. Shoving hard with two hands against his chest, Yeira pried herself free and rolled away as he toppled.

Her hands flashing out as she landed, she barely caught his big, hard head before it cracked against the rocks. Her hands came away bloody and covered in something slimy. Fire tore up her arm and she screamed as acid burned through her skin.

The hunter groaned again. Yeira turned his face and gasped. Huge, bubbling boils covered one side of his handsome face. Horror battled with disbelief as she realized he must have taken the brunt of the vulture’s hit, earning a face full of acid from its beak.

Kord writhed on the ground as the poison ate at him, quickly moving along his chin and down his muscular throat.

Yeira swallowed back bile and looked around, desperate for a way to help.
The Healer!
He’d kill her for bringing a Sorceri into his lair. But she had no choice. Without considering the consequences, she grasped the bluestone icon around her neck and thought of the little gnome’s lair.

The hunter was screaming by the time they fell onto the floor of the Healer’s treehouse, his big body flailing and arching off the floor as the black stain of the poison bubbled its way over his chest.

Feet slapped across the floor toward them and Yeira looked up.

“What have you done, girl?”

“Help him. Please?”

The little gnome frowned.

“You have to help him, Healer. I need him if I’m to finish my task.”

The wise, little man arched a shaggy gray eyebrow at her and grabbed her arm, running his spidery fingers over the claw marks on her arm before she could stop him. “Is that the only reason you want him saved, Glowbug?”

She fought exasperation as Audie’s eyes flashed open and he arched off the floor. The cords in his powerful throat bulging, he scoured their ears with a horrific, agony-filled scream. “Please, Healer. I’m begging you.”

“What is his life worth to you?” the gnome asked quietly.

She knew what he was asking. She should have known he’d go there. Gnomes didn’t function the way the rest of the universe did. They measured their actions and the actions of others by the value placed on the outcome. He was asking her if she expected him to expend the energy of his magics on a man simply because she wanted Audie for her own. If that were the price for his talents he would surely refuse.

One woman’s happiness was not nearly dear enough for that type of magical cost. But if her aim in saving the hunter was grander, the little gnome might consider helping.

She forced herself to rise off her knees and step away. Yeira formed her face into a neutral mask as Audie screamed again, and used every ounce of will she had to maintain an aspect of indifference. “It is worth nothing to
me
, you timeless ass. But it is worth everything to the world of men. Your brother, the Watcher has told us that, without this hunter Edwige will live. And he has also foretold what will happen then.”

The gnome focused his beady, black gaze on her and she felt its power even as she stood against it. Like a magic tallying accountant, he was assessing the value and determining the cost. Finally he inclined his head. “I will save your hunter, Glowbug. And you will give me what I ask in the future.”

She nodded once and forced herself to turn away, her legs suddenly weak at the cost. She would be compelled to grant the gnome his wish when he requested it. There would be no denying him. No matter the cost. “Return him to Sorceri Headquarters when you are done. He can regain his strength there.” She grasped the bluestone. Knowing if she stayed she would not be able to hold the pretense of not caring for the big, stubborn male.

Because Yeira had stopped lying to herself about Audie Kord long ago.

Despite the ultimate cost to them both.

~
TD&A
~

The moment her feet touched the dusty stone, her nose registered the horrible stench of decay. All too aware that the need for stealth was long past, Yeira started forward, hoping against hope she might find one living soul in the reborn nest to help with her quest.

She didn’t have to worry about getting lost in the maze of passageways. A sticky trail of black blood was like gory bread crumbs leading her directly to the main cavern of the nest. But even knowing what was coming, Yeira was shocked by the level of carnage. A bloody body, torn almost beyond recognition, and decaying at the rapid rate which was normal for reborns, lay across the archway into the main living area, the skeletal face empty-eyed and the jaw spread wide in a parody of a scream.

Yeira jerked to a stop, her stomach roiling. Rage boiled up, accompanied by sickness at the horrible depravity of the Sorceri hunters. It was the reason she’d fought her strong attraction to Audie, and it was a good reminder to her in that moment why she needed to keep him at arm’s length.

A soft fluttering noise had her grasping her ionic sword and she turned it on with a flick of her thumb. The low-level buzz of the weapon made her feel better as she forced herself to move forward, step over the corpse, and enter the gore-covered cavern.

She gasped, a hand coming up to cover her mouth and nose as the stench of violent death hit her in the face like a fist. There was nothing recognizable as human in the cavern. Every table, every chair, every surface was soaked, saturated, with black blood. Chunks of debris spread around the large room were only recognizable as human tissue by the scraps of clothing covering them.

She made a small sound of outrage as tears filled her eyes. The Sorceri would pay for what they’d done in that cavern. She’d take out her revenge on them herself.

A soft sound across the room had Yeira spinning on her heel, her weapon slashing through the air before her.

Cold, black eyes stared at her from atop a large cabinet. Black wings, glossy in the soft, overhead light, lifted slightly as the big raven resettled itself on the blood-covered surface of the furniture. A chunk of something meaty and raw hung from its beak and Yeira had to swallow down bile.

She stood perfectly still, staring at the big, black bird, shocked at the sight. It was Edwige’s familiar. “What are you doing here, Ebon?”

The big bird blinked and hopped from foot to foot, then opened its beak and swallowed its disgusting meal before lifting its wings and gliding toward her across the room.

Yeira stepped backward as the raven landed a few feet away, its bright eyes watching her every move. Her hand tightened on her weapon. She would use it if Ebon moved any closer.

But the bird didn’t move near. Instead it lifted its sleek head and opened its beak, responding to her question in its strident voice, “Eventide, lovey. Witching hour.”

Yeira gasped and backed away from the raven, her eyes swinging around the space. She no longer saw the carnage around her, in fact she slipped on a puddle of black, slimy blood before she noted it and took pains to step around it. The need to run away burned in her, her limbs twitching with it. But she was afraid to turn her back on the hated familiar.

“Eventide, lovey. Witching hour.”

Yeira gasped and gave up trying to remain calm. She turned around and started to run, feeling as if the hounds of hell were chasing her.

The fear was irrational, based on childhood experiences she should have long since gotten over. But the message in the words was clear.

Painfully so.

Yeira had lost all sense of control in her situation.

The hunter had just become the hunted.

He was burning up in a flameless fire. Audie writhed against the pain, fighting against the bonds that held him immobile. Hot pokers touched his face, digging into the torn and bleeding flesh as his mind screamed. Eventually the pain gave way to a warm kind of prickling that made him long to scrape his fingernails over the spot. Shudders racked him. His muscles clenched and knotted and a new kind of pain blossomed.

A stark, gravelly voice accompanied the pain, at once soothing and impatient. He thought he’d heard the voice before, or one like it, but he couldn’t be sure if he’d pulled it from his memories or wrenched it out of his delirium. He didn’t like the voice—rejected it. Audie was searching for one voice, one delicious scent, the feel of a certain pair of small, white hands.

But she wasn’t there. She’d left him to die. Deserted him. After he’d nearly killed himself to save her.

Disappointment dug the deepest. He was used to pain. He could live with the possibility he would die. But Yeira— Her desertion might be the end of him.

He swam around in his self-pity, made numb by his unconscious state, as long as fate would let him. And then he was dragged reluctantly from his rest, to face the real disappointment he knew was waiting as he surfaced.

Audie opened his eyes and groaned, slamming them closed again. The sun burned holes in his eyes and scalded the damaged skin on his face. “Well, that’s it then, she’s left me to die in Hell’s fires.”

“Stop wriggling, Hunter. By the gods I thought one as big and strong as you would be tougher.”

Audie’s eyes snapped back open and his hand came up to shield them. He peered at the wizened little face hovering over his from beneath his covering palm. “Who the hell are you?”

The wrinkled face folded into an expression that could mean anything. Mostly it just looked like the bottom of a dried prune.

The little creature shook his head, his long, gray beard tickling Audie’s chest. “Useless creature. She was right.”

Audie frowned. “She who?”

The prune dropped from sight and Audie was forced to remove his hand and look around. He was inside a circular room with rough, wood walls and windows that looked like they’d been chiseled into the walls by a large woodpecker. The table beneath him was metal and, though he burned with an unnatural fever, it remained cool against his skin.

Audie thought he must be inside a tree, though as soon as he had the thought he realized it had to be the result of a fevered mind. It wasn’t possible. “Where am I?”

Lying there on his back, all he could see of the little man was the top of his pointed, black hat, which bobbed across the room as the creature’s feet slapped along the floor.

“Who are you? Where am I? Who’s Glowbug? Nothing but questions…” The little face appeared above him again and Audie blinked in surprise. “Not a single thank you for my hours of trouble on your behalf.”

Audie frowned. “Who the hell is Glowbug?”

The little man reached a spidery finger toward Audie’s face and he flinched away. But he couldn’t escape the finger, or the cool green salve the man spread carefully over the burning skin. “Now he repeats the questions.” The little head swung from side to side, sending the pointed hat into paroxysms of echoing disgust.