Shadowfever
Page 44

Its hand, for lack of a better word, is the size of a small car. How did it so tidily rip off Darrocs head?
Did it pinch it off with its talons? It happened absurdly fast.
Why would it kill him?
Darroc was allied with the Hunters. It was the Hunters that taught him to eat Unseelie. Did theyas I once warned him they wouldtire of him and turn on him?
I reach for my spear. Its back. Great, the princes are definitely gone. But before I can pull it out, the Hunter laughs, dry and dusty, in my mind, and I am assaulted by a sense of age that defies time, of sanity that was forged down a long path of madness. It was muting itself before. This one is very different from the other Hunters.
I wouldnt be surprised to discover it was the granddaddy of them all.
It calls itself KVruck. Humans have no word for it. It means a state beyond death. Death is small compared to KVruck.
Huh? I stammer. The voice was in my mind.
KVruck is so much more complete than death. It is the reduction of matter to a state of utter inertness, from which nothing can ever rise again. It is less than nothing. Nothing is something. KVruck is absolute. Your species would postulate the loss of soul to try to wrap their puny brains around it.
I stiffen. I know this voice. This mockery. My spear will be no use against it. If I kill the Hunter, it would probably just hop a ride on me.
I will tell you a secret, it says silkily. You do go on. Humans. Unless you areit laughs softlyKVrucked.
I suck in a ragged breath.
MacKayla, I permit none to control me. Darroc will never use his shortcut, and you will never learn it.
The Hunter pops Darrocs head like a grape. Hair and bone slap to the pavement. And now that Im no longer transfixed by the gory sight, I see what the Hunter holds in its other hand. Had been holding all along.
I back away faster.
There was never any chance that Darroc and I would soar up into the night, and hunt the Sinsar Dubh.
It beat us to the punch.
It hitched a ride on our Hunter and came to us.
And here I am, helpless. I have no stones, my spear is useless
The amulet! When the Hunter ripped Darrocs head off, it stayed on his body! I feint a wild glance around, trying hard to look at nothing in particular and everything, to keep from telegraphing my intentions.
Where the hell are the princes? They could sift me out of here! What did they dovanish the moment Darroc was killed? Cowards!
Its there! When Darrocs body collapsed to the ground, the amulet slid off the stump of his neck. Silver and gold, its lying in a pool of blood, a dozen feet from me! I have power in my glassy lake. With the amulet to reinforce me, is it enough to hold my own?
I turn inward to step onto my black-pebbled beach,but that damned wall springs up before I can get there. The Sinsar Dubh laughs. I fractured this wall last night. Ill do it tonight or die trying.
Power is earned, and you have not.
I dont need to look to know its rising, separating from the Hunter, soaring up, becoming the towering Beast form of the Book, getting ready to crush me with pain.
Or, who knows this time? Maybe worse. Maybe its going to KVruck me.
I lunge forward and grab. My fingers brush the chain. Ive got it! Im pulling it toward me!
Then suddenly something slams into my side, and the amulet is knocked from my grasp and gone. My arm is caught at a bad angle, extended mid-reach, and I hear it snap as Im pushed into a long, helpless slide on my side, scraping pavement. My head hits the ground and my forehead drags. I feel skin ripping away.
Then Im being picked up and tossed into the air. I glance wildly around but dont see the amulet anywhere. As I come down, someone flings me over their shoulder. My hair is in my face, my arm dangles limply, and my forehead is bleeding into my eyes. I nearly scalped myself on the pavement.
Everything is moving so fast its a blur.
Superstrength. Superspeed. I feel motion sickness coming on.
Dani? I gasp. Did she come to save me, even though I was such a bitch and drove her away?
Dani, no! I need the amulet!
I hang upside down, watching pavement whiz by.
Dani, stop!
But she doesnt. I hear snarling receding rapidly behind us.
The Hunter roars.
Bloodcurdling howls shatter the night.
I jerk. I know those sounds. Ive heard them before.
Take me back, take me back! I scream, but for an entirely different reason now. Who are theythese beasts that sound like Barrons? I need to know!
Dani, you have to take me back!
But she doesnt. She keeps running. Doesnt listen to a word I say. She runs me straight to the one place I never want to see again.
Barrons Books and Baubles.
14
My first suspicion that it wasnt Dani carrying me reared its head when we blasted through the front door of the bookstore.
Or, rather, that suspicion turned its head and licked blood from the back of my thigh.
Unless Dani had some serious issues I didnt know about, this wasnt her shoulder I was over.
It licked me again, dragging its tongue across my leg, just beneath the curve of my ass. My dress was hitched up, trapped between my stomach and its shoulder. It bit me. Hard.
Ow!
With fangs. Not deep enough to draw blood but enough to sting. I wiped my sleeve across my face, scrubbing blood from my eyes with the fur cuff.