Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel) (2 page)

Too many people were so gaga over vampires they fell easily for the charms of the demon-vamps instead of looking harder for the real thing.

As I slinked past Cassie, I brushed against her. Too late, I hoped it would be a reassuring contact rather than making her wet herself with shock. Then I turned the corner and set off in a loping run.

My paws hit the ground, sliding on the smooth stones as I sprinted along the narrow path that cut through the moor. A low stone wall appeared on the rise and I launched myself over it, the move smooth and elegant, as if I'd done it a million times before.

Only recently had I begun to allow my panther more face time. Since Greer's death, I'd slowly learned to appreciate my feline side, my sister's troubles having made me understand the true value of what I had inside me, more now that I'd lost my sibling forever.

Icy rain began to pelt my long back, hitting my fur with vicious slaps, as if frustrated it couldn't penetrate to my skin. Now that I was no longer cold, I felt a little righteous, my shift a middle finger to the universe.

Strangely enough, the downpour didn't hinder my sight, I blinked and ran, my gaze fixed out on the rolling dark hills that surrounded the shallow valley. A small forest of trees grew to my left and I headed up across the grassy hillside.

I drew in a deep breath as I reached the top of the rise and caught the faint trace of demon-blood mixed with cold ash. I frowned. It was probably only the residual odor of the blood that had been on my fingers. I would've preferred not to have touched the substance but doing so had helped me know how warm it was and whether our prey had survived his injuries.

Pity he had.

The heavens decided, at that moment, that they'd had enough of throwing buckets of water upon our heads and dried up so suddenly I found myself squinting up at the dark night. It was probably totally natural here, but to me everything seemed strange and foreboding, and wrong.

Where I was concerned suspicion tended to be a good thing.

It usually saved lives.

I concentrated on the smell, breathing a little deeper, staring that much harder into the darkness. Something blurred to the right of the valley below and I moved slow and careful down the hill. My paws made little noise on the wet grass, and my body seemed to slide between the low growth without making a sound.

At the bottom of the hill stood a drab, dilapidated old hut, its gray surface broken, its mortar so crumbled that many stones had fallen out and left gaping holes in the wall. The roof too showed a number of missing sections, like tired mouths yawning to the open heavens.

The tap-tap of water dripping onto stone told me the hovel would be just as cold and wet inside as out here. Guess our demon wasn't on the smart side at all.

Somewhere along the hillside an animal cried, and my panther ears pricked to attention. It was a cat's cry and though I couldn't be sure what feline species it belonged to, it sounded more like an invitation than a warning. But I held myself stiff, cutting through my panther's temptation to investigate.

I padded around the broken wall to where a half-open door hung precariously from a rusted hinge. A mere breath from me would be enough to send it to the ground. The narrow space was just wide enough for me to slide inside the darkened interior without having to test my breathing theory.

Inside, the hovel was silent. A glance upward showed me the once well-thatched roof was now bare straw, moldy and broken, over rafters swollen and split in so many places that I'd bet it would collapse under a sparrow's weight.

Up near the rafters something shifted, and pale light gleamed on a ragged spider's web. The shifting image morphed into the web's now seven-legged owner. Even higher up, scurrying flashes of darkness confirmed the presence of rats.

Great.

Even in panther form, I hated the vermin.

Demons I could handle.

Rats? Nope.

I clicked across the floor, my sharp claws hitting the wet stone and echoing loudly around the room. Another doorway, this time free of anything remotely door-like, led to an inner room, this one no drier.

I froze, suddenly sure I'd heard something move. I felt, deep in my gut, the presence of someone or something. I tasted his scent on the air, and it led me to the far corner of the room, drawing my attention up toward the shadows within the high thatched roof. I squinted, the world a multitude of shades; gray and shadow and night, as my panther located the demon, and conveyed it to my human brain.

I'd discovered long ago that panther sight and hearing could overwhelm me, so I'd learned to blend it well. Now the sensations were not a total shock to my system.

Helps when you finally accept the panther side of you, doesn't it?

My eyes narrowed. My prey crouched on an old cracked rafter so swollen from the rain that it looked ready to burst into shards of toothpicks especially with the demon weighing it down.

He watched me too, his head tilted to the left, his demon eyes glowing amber. It was clear that he wasn't sure what to make of me.
 

I smelled no fear on him either. And that was certainly a mistake. He should be afraid of me.

His white protruding canines - yes, vamp-demons had them too - glinted as he grinned down at me.

It was easy to see why humans mistook this creature for the legendary vampire. His glamour didn't help either. Soft blond hair that hung to his shoulders, deep green eyes, a muscled tanned physique that would make him instantly sexy. He'd have plenty of fodder on the streets of Glasgow, let alone in cities as big as London or New York.

It certainly made sense that Sentinel would want to be rid of him. I found it refreshing that they hadn't requested we bring him back to headquarters. Omega had that particular requirement on all the missives they'd sent my way. Not a palatable job when I was forced to hand over a potentially innocent person - demon or otherwise - to Omega. They possessed a stained track record for experimenting on their own, one I wasn't comfortable with.

But, as pleasing as the instruction was, it didn't contain fine print regarding innocents. Something I planned to discuss with the higher-ups the first chance I got.

The barest hint of sound drifted to my ear. It wasn't much, probably the shifting of a stone against the path, or the brushing of clothing against the stone wall that surrounded the abandoned hut.

Cassie.

When the demon stopped grinning and simply disappeared, my panther's gut churned with the same fear my human self experienced.

I spun around and loped to the nearest window. I launched myself through the bare casement, its glass and framing long gone, and landed smoothly on the bare sand outside the hut. I stiffened as both my sense of smell and sight worked in tandem.

Across the yard, the shape of the demon shifted.
 

He'd stopped running and disappeared into a shifting smudge of darkness, only to reappear halfway up the hill to the left of the house, as if he'd taken a mere step away.

We'd been right about his uncanny ability to elude us.

He'd Jumped.

N
OW
IT
MADE
SENSE
HOW
the slippery vamp-demon had managed to evade us for so many days. He'd disappeared off Cassie's radar one too many times for it to be a coincidence, and it had bugged me to a point that I'd begun to suspect that Sentinel, or someone else, was setting us up.

Paranoid much?

On the plus side, we'd managed to get close enough earlier that evening--by walking past him in a run-down old pub over in the next town--to place a tracking device on him. Vamp-demons didn't seem to mind when chewing-gum got stuck under their shoes. Or, in his case, army boots.

He still hadn't found the bug, but since Sentinel's equipment appeared to be on the fritz, it hadn't helped us locate him.

Gritting my teeth, I scrambled across the yard, knowing my midnight dark fur would make me melt into the evening. I flew across the low stone wall, landed softly on padded paws, then slunk toward a stand of trees on the hillside up ahead.

Vamp-demon scent drifted down toward me, proof that he wasn't smart enough, or experienced enough, to at least remain downwind. Either that or he thought he was too smart. I'd put my money on the latter.

But right now, Cassie was my first concern. Although her main role with Sentinel was as an Appereo, a rare type of mage with the ability to shapechange and turn herself invisible at will, she was still essentially human as most mages were. I could smell her human scent pretty strong on the soft breezed that filtered down the hill. The demon would close in on her faster than I was able to run.

Pity I couldn't jump too.

I loped to the top of the hill and flew over another low wall, landing a few feet from where Cassie hunkered down out of sight of the hut, both our backpacks at her feet.
 

I took a step toward her but I was too late.

The demon shimmered, twisting shadows slowly forming into the creepy vamp. He stood, profile to me, studying Cassie who was halfway onto her knees, her invisibility beginning to shimmer, distorting the air around her.

The demon's teeth glinted and I sprang at him. Cass's eyes flickered in my direction but the demon must not have much of an instinct going on. Granted, all he saw was a black panther. But how many black panthers lurked around the farmlands of Scotland?

Cass flickered into nothing but the demon wasn't to be bested so easily. His fingers snapped out, sharp black nails sprouting in a blink as he wrapped them around Cassie's invisible neck.

Cassie shimmered again, visible now, eyes wide. Something was wrong. He could teleport and now he had the power to see Cassie while she was invisible.

This is not happening.

The demon laughed, tightening his grip. Cassie was unable to get away from him. The bastard must have some sort of spell on him that held her in this plane. That we hadn't expected.

Cassie let out a furious grunt, using the force of her solid state to tug away from his razor sharp grip but all she managed was to topple over the fence. Which wasn't the best idea. It saved her ass, but it also meant the vamp's claws sliced into her skin and tore a good portion of her flesh open. Thankfully, the injuries weren't mortal; it would take a good deal more than that to threaten the life of a high-level paranormal like Cassie.
 

And, the demon seemed to be the I-like-to-play-with-my-food variety. A good thing in this case or--judging by Cassie's shocked face and her grimace of pain--maybe not.

She paused, raising her the fingers of her right hand, closer to her comms, but the vamp wasn't as stupid as she'd hoped. He grabbed the earwig and flung it into the grass.

It landed a foot in front of me.

I stood frozen in the darkness considering my next move. If he really meant to kill her he was taking his time. Any sudden move on my part could finish the job if I wasn't careful.

I studied the location of his nails in her throat, the lines of the blood trails on her skin, the ragged flesh where he'd torn her open. Cassie gasped as he tightened his grip, her bulging eyes searching wildly for me as he held her neck stiff preventing even the slightest movement.

When he leaned forward I thought nothing of it until I saw the glint of a sharp lengthening canine. Okay, so he wasn't going to muck around after all.
 

I sprang at him, aiming parallel to the stone wall to allow Cass to fall on this side of the fence if he suddenly let go of her.

He didn't let go.

I hit him broadside. His head snapped around, eyes shocked and furious at the interruption. When he realized his attacker was the black cat he'd so recently dismissed he didn't release his prey. He fell sideways, hitting the ground hard, his fingers still clamped around Cassie's neck as he dragged her with him.

She shrieked and I sank my claws into his arm. But he was a stubborn bastard. My presence didn't seem to discourage him and he only gripped harder.

And as she lay very still beside him, Cass made a strange, hair-raising sound. The sound of dying; last gasps, final desperate breaths before the end.