Earthbound Page 8

  “The kerakal is probably awake, so keep your eyes and ears open. By the way, there’s a weak spot right beneath its mouth. If you aim for that area, you’ll do more damage. That’s where its heart is located. If the kerakal gets its teeth on you, you’re going to take a massive amount of damage, not counting the fact that it has a venom in its bite that can paralyze. It’s a temporary condition, but lasts long enough to put you out of commission for a while. Certainly long enough for it to start eating you. So be careful.”

  “What are you using for a weapon?” Delilah asked.

  Iris glanced up at her. “I have my magic. I work with the magic of ice and snow and mists. I can do a lot of damage if I want to, even now.”

  Again I had the sense that she was leaving out part of her story. And once again, a voice inside said Leave it alone. She’ll tell you in her own time.

  “But it eats magic.” I was confused.

  “Ah, but it can’t eat the magic that I cast around it instead of at it. And I can cause a localized ice storm that will slow it down.” She winked at me. “It’s sort of like causing a fire storm rather than trying to set something on fire.”

  Made sense to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the same.

  I was clutching a dagger, hoping to hell I could remember my training. It had been a while since I had actually been in a skirmish. Lathe had kept me close to the office, in hopes of catching me off guard at some point. In fact, ever since I had brought in a deadly serial killer—shortly before Menolly had been turned—he had been an ass. A man named Trillian helped me collar the freak. I sighed. Trillian. He had been the love of my life. And I was still desperately trying to forget him.

  After the collar, though, my caseload had become a series of gofer duties, and I had become the butt of a number of office jokes, especially among the men who wanted to see me as an easy fuck with big boobs. Nobody respected us because of our heritage, but I tended to get the fallout worse than the others. Delilah was an athlete, and Menolly was rather surly even before she became a vampire, and nobody wanted to mess with them.

  We broke into a clearing near the pond. It was the first time we had been down here, and none of us expected it to be so beautiful. Birchwater Pond was huge, almost a small lake, and the entire shore was ringed with the trail. We could circle the pond with no problem, and I had a sudden vision of holidays and rituals spent here, celebrating and enjoying the quiet wash of water lapping against the shore.

  Iris snapped her fingers, returning our attention to the matter at hand. She motioned for us to follow her and, letting her nose lead her, she traipsed to the left, heading toward an embankment that led off into the woods.

  “Is it over here?” Menolly asked softly.

  “I believe so.” Iris paused, holding out one hand as she inched forward.

  Suddenly, she froze and pointed toward a hole that had been burrowed into the embankment. A faint light flickered from within. We were too close for me to ask if the kerakal could create a magical light source, or whether it might be using fire or some other form of illumination.

  We crept along behind the house sprite, weapons at the ready. Delilah looked like she was enjoying herself. Menolly had a more serious look on her face. As for me? I would have been happier back at home, safe in the kitchen. But I swallowed my fear, pushing it down, and tried not to sink into the muddy ground around us. I was wearing the boots I had brought from home and a spidersilk skirt that I was desperately trying to keep from dragging in the mud.

  We neared the hole, and I tried to pinpoint any noise that might be coming from within, but I couldn’t hear a thing because the wind was starting to whip up waves on the pond. But the next moment, we were all startled by a loud grunt behind us. I whirled, bringing my dagger up.

  There, standing behind us, were two kerakals, not one. And they both looked hungry.

  Chapter 8

  “Holy hell! Two of them!” My feet froze as I realized just how much danger we were in.

  Iris pushed in front of me, and the next moment she let out a loud shout and a string of words in a foreign language. As she held out her hands, a hail of ice and snow rolled into the area, surrounding not only the kerakals, but us. As the chunks of hail and snow hit us full force, it felt as though we were being pelted by stones. Very sharp, very cold stones.

  “Crap. I didn’t mean to catch us in that.” Iris let out another incantation, but nothing seemed to change.

  Menolly raced forward, holding her sword high in the air. Vampires were powerhouses, and it never fail to amaze me what our jian-tu had become since she had been turned. She bounded off the ground, leaping to cover the distance, and landed in front of the kerakal to the right.

  As she swung the sword, the creature let out a roar and barreled toward her. It managed to miss her swing, but as it slammed into her at full force, she kept her ground, standing against its impact. The kerakal staggered back. Menolly grinned as it let out a strangled noise and turned. Racing after it, she chased it toward the forest.

  The other kerakal, however, wasn’t going anywhere. It charged forward.

  Delilah and I met it, me with my dagger and her with her short sword, doing our best to hit the kerakal rather than each other. Delilah was good with blades, and she managed to land a blow, causing it to yelp in a loud guttural voice. I, on the other hand, barely managed to miss stabbing myself.

  “Well, hell, that’s not what I wanted to do!” My dagger was now stuck in the tree next to me. I frantically tried to yank it out while Delilah kept the kerakal from coming after me. But she was having trouble fending it off.

  Iris circled around side, trying to get a clear shot. I wasn’t sure what she could do—any magic she threw directly at the creature would be absorbed and returned back toward us. And if she caused another hailstorm, we’d all be caught in whiteout blizzard conditions.

  I finally managed to work my dagger out of the tree trunk, relieved to see the tip still attached to the blade. “I’m going to try to circle around it.”

  “Keep your plans to yourself,” Iris said. “They can understand English.”

  Wonderful. Just lovely. I dashed to the side, trying to avoid getting close enough for it to grab. The kerakal turned its attention from Delilah to me. Maybe circling it wasn’t such a good idea after all, but there wasn’t anything I could do now. I wasn’t about to run away and leave my sisters to fight these things alone.

  Delilah took advantage of being in its blind spot to bring her sword to bear again. This time she landed a firm blow, the blade sinking deep into the creature’s back. It let out a shriek, its arms flailing as she shoved the blade in deeper.

  I seized the chance to attempt a blow. Aiming for the spot beneath its mouth, I darted forward with my dagger, but the blade slipped on its hardened skin and slid to the side. I only managed to graze its shoulder. The kerakal grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me toward its open mouth. Those needle sharp teeth glistened under the night sky, and I managed to jerk to one side, out of the way as it tried to land a bite on my arm. But it still had hold of me.

  “Leave my sister alone!” Delilah shouted from behind, pushing one more time. As she did so, the tip of her sword protruded through its chest. Unfortunately, that’s not where its heart was. I managed to get a firm grip on my dagger again and then, I had an idea. I stopped struggling and let it drag me forward, trying to gauge the perfect time in which to make my move.

  Delilah withdrew her sword, seeing that she was doing no further damage. The creature jerked around to see what she was doing, and as it did, I had an open shot.

  I drove the dagger forward, aiming for the spot right below its mouth as I shrieked at it.

  Startled, the kerakal turned back around just in time for the tip of my blade to meet its chin.

  I pushed as hard as I could. A viscous red liquid began to dribble from around my blade, quickly turning into a river of blood. I had managed to hit its heart.

&
nbsp; The kerakal let go of me, stumbling back. Delilah chose that moment to bring her sword down directly atop its head. She drove the sword through the creature’s skull and on through its body, actually managing to impale the kerakal to the ground.

  I backed away, watching it flail as its life drained out. Part of me felt horrible. I had killed before. We all had, but it was never easy, and I didn’t think it would ever get any easier.

  The next moment Menolly returned, dragging the other kerakal behind her. It was dead. She tossed the body next to the other one. “Took me a while, but I got him.”

  I noticed there were blood stains around her lips. “Had yourself a little snack, did you?”

  She shrugged. “Waste not want not, and fresh blood is always better. Well, unless you’re talking about goblins. I tasted goblin blood once and I don’t think I want to repeat the experience. It’s not very pleasant. Oh, it’s fine for an emergency, but I’ll take bottled over fresh goblin any day. These things, too. Why were they here on our land?”

  Iris frown, then motioned for us to follow her. “I’m not sure, but maybe we can find out. Come on, follow me.” She headed into the burrow.

  “Are you sure there aren’t any more inside?” I really didn’t feel up to fighting another one.

  “They usually travel either singularly or in pairs. It was probably mating season, though I’d be hard pressed to figure out which was male and which was female. My main concern is that we might find a litter inside. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t feel like killing babies.”

  I groaned. Baby kerakals were the last thing we needed.

  We cautiously headed into the burrow. The illumination seemed to be coming from what appeared to be a small, magical fire, and to my relief, the cave-like room was mostly empty. No babies, no need for nasty decisions.

  Iris looked around, motioning for us to wait. She seemed to have taken charge of this mission and I was just as glad to let her have the lead. I had no desire to figure out what we were doing. I wasn’t even sure what she was looking for, other than a litter of squalling infants.

  But apparently she knew, because she made a beeline for the opposite wall. “See? The dirt there is fresh, not compact. There’s something behind it. They always hide their treasure in walls. Now, one of you help me clear the space.”

  Menolly volunteered, digging into the dirt with her hands, scooping it out and tossing it to the side. A few moments later, a small cavity appeared and in the back of the hole, sat a chest. It was silver, about the size of a small handbag.

  Pulling back, Menolly motioned to me. “I can’t touch silver.”

  I nodded, gingerly reaching in. I hoped there weren’t any nasty surprises waiting for me. But my hand wrapped around the box, and nothing went boom, so I pulled it out. The box was surprisingly light. It was either empty, or it was holding extremely light contents.

  Suddenly, the magical light vanished.

  “Let’s get out of here. Now.” Iris pulled out a flashlight and turned, hurrying toward the opening. “Don’t dawdle or you’ll find yourself buried alive.”

  We fell in behind her and, as I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that the hole was filling itself at a rapid rate. “Don’t look now but get out or we’re going to get our asses buried!”

  “That’s what I said,” Iris called over her shoulder as she exited the burrow. Menolly shot out, then Delilah. I was last to beat a hasty retreat. Mere seconds after I was free of the burrow, the embankment caved in, as though the burrow had never existed. I glanced around, confused, and noticed that the bodies of the kerakals were gone.

  “Where did they go?”

  “Some of the Earthside Fae vanish into the mists…or maybe the astral…or wherever, when they die. They just go poof. Others, ones that are bound to the earth like the kerakals, return to the soil and so do their burrows.” She let out a long breath. “At least we found them. I don’t know what they were doing here, but I’m curious about what’s in that chest.”

  “Let’s take it home before we open it. I really don’t want to spend any more time out in these woods than I have to. Not until we do a thorough walk through of the land and ward it.” I headed back toward the path, not worrying about whether the others were following. I wanted to be home, in the kitchen, with a hot cup of tea. Or coffee. I didn’t care which.

  Apparently, we were all of the same mind. Delilah and Menolly fell in behind me, along with Iris, and fifteen minutes later, we were thawing out in the kitchen. We were soaked from Iris’s hailstorm, and chilled from the wind. Five minutes after we burst through the kitchen door, the storm broke and it began to rain, hard and heavy.

  “I’m taking a shower before we do anything.” I grabbed a towel and headed up to my bedroom. By the time I had warmed up, cleaned off, and dried my hair, I felt a hundred percent better and was ready to face whatever was in that silver chest. As I headed downstairs, I heard a noise and saw Delilah come bouncing down from her suite of rooms, looking freshly bathed.

  “You willingly took a shower?” It wasn’t that she was dirty or messy, but her cat nature came out in her dislike of being in water. She would scrub herself into a lather, then jump in the shower to rinse off.

  “You weren’t the only one who was cold. Menolly’s taking a shower too—she got blood all over her when she was fighting the kerakal.”

  Back in the kitchen, we saw that Iris, too, had availed herself of the downstairs bathroom. Only she hadn’t washed her hair. But she was wearing a long sweater of Delilah’s as a robe, belted with a thin sash.

  “Well, now that we’re all feeling better, let’s have have a look at the chest.”

  Iris set the silver box on the table and we gathered around it. There was a lock on it, and even just a glance told me it was far too intricate for me to figure out. Delilah examined it, but after a moment, she too, gave up. Iris took over.

  “I used to be able to open locks, and I still have a bit of magic that might do the trick. Let me have a look.” She turned it this way and that, fingers playing gently over the embossed metal. After a moment, she let out an “Aha!” and we heard a tiny click.

  She returned the box to the table. “Be my guest.”

  I glanced at her. “You’re sure? What if they booby trapped it?”

  “Then we might blow up the house. Seriously, though, if it were trapped, I would have set it off by unlocking it. Go ahead.”

  Curiosity winning over fear, I reached forward and flipped the lid open.

  A soft whoosh…as though someone very far away let out a whispering sigh…

  A cold sweat broke out on my forehead as I stared into the chest. There, on a red velvet pillow, rested a clear gem, faceted and sparkling. It was the size of an apricot, with a faint flicker within that sparkled and moved on its own.

  “What is it?” Delilah frowned, reaching for it. Then she pulled her hand back. “I don’t think I want to touch it.”

  Menolly cocked her head to one side. “I’m not sure, but there’s magic there. I can feel it, and if I can feel it, you know it has to be strong. I’m magically challenged.”

  Iris and I remained fixated on the gem. There was something about it, something that begged me to pick it up…to touch it…to caress it. Before I could stop myself, I snatched the jewel up. A sharp jolt ricocheted through my hand, jarring every cell in my body down to my core. I cried out, dropping the gem back on the pillow.

  “Are you all right?” Menolly asked.

  I stared at my hand where a red mark the shape of the gem had burned into my skin. A moment later, it began to fade rapidly, vanishing as quickly as it had formed. But I had the feeling that I had just set something in motion. Something that wouldn’t fade like the mark had.

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure what happened. The gem burned me. It was…like a shock…a spark. I’m frightened.” I turned to Iris. “Do you know what just happened?”

  The carefree express
ion had vanished from her face. Instead, she slowly reached out to pick up the gem. As she held it, I felt like someone was walking over my grave. Not only my grave, but all of our graves.

  Iris let out a sharp cry and replaced it in the chest. “I’m not sure what that is, but it felt like it just called out to someone. It ricochet through me…Whatever this is, it’s ancient, but it feels incomplete, as though it belonged to another age. To something so old that we can’t even begin to remember what it is. It felt…like a key—like when you picked it up, the gem called out for something. Something that was once whole and is now broken.”

  “What was once whole…and is now broken. I can see that,” I said softly, searching my feelings. “What do you think it was?”

  “I don’t know, but whatever it cried out for is incredibly powerful. I don’t think it’s a person, though…but some sort of artifact. A weapon, perhaps?”

  I caught a sudden whiff of something and froze. “Maybe it’s the power of suggestion, but I think I can smell the faint stench of Demonkin on the wind. Whatever that gem is connected to, it’s dangerous in its power and I’m terribly afraid, because I know in my heart that we weren’t the only ones to hear it. I made a mistake in opening the chest.”

  It was true. I could smell Demonkin, albeit faintly—like the first strains of thunder. I struggled to understand, to connect with whatever it was we had set into motion, but then, without warning, I stood in front of the Moon Mother. She was glorious, alabaster and jet, the Huntress who rode the full moon, leading her armies behind her.

  Camille…you have set into motion events that will play out…events that must play out if the balance is to be maintained. Enjoy your leisure while you can, for armies come in on the tide, and they will not wait for you to ready yourselves to meet them.

  And then, she was gone. I blinked, unsure what had just happened. But I knew one thing: the Moon Mother was aware of what had happened, and she wasn’t going to tell me. I’d have to find out on my own.