Skin Deep (23 page)

My initial bravado and desire to rid the word of the scum called Brand had come to a grinding halt. I accepted now, that something more had to be done about this. The clans needed to be warned.
Walkers weren't known to prey on Humans in this fashion, and from what I’d learned all my life, very few walkers went rogue to this extent.

It
wasn't the way we lived. The Skin-Walkers had a code. No matter the clan, no matter the location, the code was law.

And if Brand was Sully, and he didn't care about Clan code, maybe his meal choices extended to Walkers. In which case, with the number of Walker bodies passing through his club, he'd have enough to feed himself and his little band of blood-suckers for years to come.

Here I sat, ringside to the murder and consumption of a Human being. The hungry sounds and smells of their feeding rousing the bile from my stomach. Walkers like these had lost control, had ceased to see reason or to abide by clan law. They would endanger the entire community.

The feeding sounds were fading as they devoured the body.

My stomach lurched, and I knew I wasn't far from spilling my own guts. The thought of what danger it would bring was enough to settle my nausea. Best to get back outside and wait for the team to arrive.

I moved slowly, staying low and heading back the way I came. Rounding large rusting drums and rolls of chains, fallen free from their mountings in the ceiling.

I was almost home free when I was ruthlessly lifted by the collar, and suspended off the ground. I was barely able to turn and look at my captor. I found myself staring Brand in the face.

He must have finished feeding earlier than the others and I hadn't noticed. I was dead meat. Literally. It wasn't likely he'd be squeamish to feed on a walker.

He didn't say a word. Brand held me by the collar, let me fall to the ground and dragged me behind him as he returned to his horde. My butt landed on the dust, and bumped along as he went, no doubt wrecking my leather pants.

He flung me to the ground. I came to a rolling stop alongside the three walkers feeding feverishly off the human remains. They took no notice of me. For
that, I was thankful.

Brand undoubtedly understood the danger of parting a feeding animal from its food, and grabbed a handful of my hair, forcing me to move back a little way toward the way we’d come. Then he hit me. A blow to the side of my head, so unexpected I bit down on the front of my tongue, almost severing it. I lingered on the edge of unconsciousness until the rattling of heavy chains got my attention and pulled me back to my horrible reality.

He'd wrapped the chains around my hands, the vice-grip of the cold metal biting into my wrist as he pulled hard on his end. Pain flared in my hands as the chains dug deep into my skin as Brand lifted me off the ground until I hung a foot off. Looking straight into Brand's feral, blood streaked eyes. Eyes that seemed strangely familiar. And a scent that sent of warning bells in my head.

I'd been so pre-occupied with being flung around the place I'd paid scant attention to his scent. And now I knew just where I'd smelled that particular eau de Walker before.

Club Wylde.

Hiro's boss Brand, was Hiro's boss Sully.

Until now, he hadn't uttered a word. I wasn't sure he could, my knowledge of the quality of a Walker's vocal cords in mid-change was limited.

"What are you doing sniffing around my place?" His words were raspy, rough, confirming my assumption. But he could growl. And growl he did. Revealing his canines and the glistening tissue still stuck there, remnants of his recent meal.

I was not forthcoming with an answer and received a solid punch to the midsection for my reluctance to chat. I coughed and gasped for air to refill my lungs.

Brand shoved me in frustration and I swung in a slow, wide arc away from him, and then back toward him, completing the circle. When I reached him again he punched, this time, connecting with my jaw, hard. My head spun, and I tried to clear it even though it was incredibly difficult with my head caught tight between both upraised arms.

My heart was thudding again, so fast my Panther clawed to get out. Bound as I was it was impossible to change, so I tamped the need down, with another more vicious need. I kicked out at him. Hard.

He hadn't expected it. The force of the kick to his face was deflected by the slippery blood still coating his mouth and chin. In spite of the deflection he reeled slightly. He pawed the spot I'd made contact with, wiping away a streak of blood and gore with it.

"You are trying my patience." He came closer, growling the words into my ear, sniffing at me. He seemed about to say something else, as he looked at my face. If this was really Sully, he would’ve recognized me, no doubt about that. He took a step back and looked at me. Perhaps it had been the stench of the Human victim's blood lingering around this end of the building that masked my own feline scent. But now he knew.

"Well, look what we found, boys. A little kitty cat come to play with us." Brand stared me down, this time after grabbing a solid hold onto my jacket collar. He smiled, and my heart plummeted. He was playing some kind of game with me.

His clawed fingers scraped lines in my scalp, splitting skin and drawing blood. He ripped my head back, the angle making it hard to swallow. I was still silent and he seemed not to like it.

"Speak, kitty
..." He smiled but it was more a grimace. "Or I will be forced to play a little game you may not enjoy so much." He ran those gruesome claws against my cheek and their sharp edges dug slowly into the skin below my ear. More cuts, more blood.

The moment of silence which followed was filled only with the thought I was probably the most foolish
female who ever walked this sorry Earth. Now, I hoped Logan had gotten his shit together and was out there right now, waiting for the right moment to spring me. All I could do was buy time, and silence would get me nowhere.

"I heard about you
...you're Brand aren't you?" I looked him straight in the eye and prepared myself to lie my face off. Better than having it ripped off. I decided to play the game. Pretend I didn't recognize him. Pretend I really was into the whole partial transformation, eating Human thing. Let Brand/Sully think I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into.

"I know who I am, kitty."

I heard snickering behind me. The boys were done with their meal and had come to watch the show.

Brand threw them a cold stare over my shoulder and they fell silent.

"I...I wanted to find out if it's true...that you can transform partway through." I tried to inject a dose of admiration into my voice.

I thought of batting my eyelids but it seemed a bit over the top, and besides, he'd pounded one of my eyes, and it was now swollen and un-battable. Not to mention the fact that I'd come on strong at the Club. He'd know I was faking it. "Nobody believed it when we heard it, but I did."

"So you followed me here?" Brand was slightly entranced by the idea of meeting a groupie, though still slightly suspicious.

I wanted him a little closer, wanted so badly to deliver a sound kick to his groin. Make sure there'd never be any little Brand's running around feeding on innocent people. But I doused the urge. Those claws of his reminded me that nothing stopped him from using my bones to sharpen his claws.

"Yes...I want you to teach me..." I let longing drip from my voice, and laced it with admiration again.

Whatever part of him remained a sentient male would naturally soak it up. I was disgusted with how authentic I sounded, and the pretense weighed heavily on me. I needed to have him believe I wanted to join their disgusting little band. It meant I had a chance to survive at least for the next few minutes. I refused to even think about the quandary I would be in if my backup did not arrive soon. Anytime soon would be good. Now would be better.

I swallowed the bile rising within me, and gazed into those bloodshot eyes.

"What will you give me for that lesson, kitty?" Brand made a slow circuit around me. His eyes roamed, his heartbeat increased, and the pheromones built up on his skin.

I delayed my answer. I was hung here like a side of meat, surrounded by rogue Skin-Walkers. I had no misconception of what I meant to them. And I wasn't about to encourage him to have a bite.

He closed the distance between our faces. So close I could smell the rot of his breath and the stink of his body. Hygiene was not high on his list of priorities. He grabbed a hold of my hair again - seemed he had a thing for my hair- tilting my head back, baring my neck and the bloody spot beneath my ear still leaking wet droplets.

He ran his tongue across the spot, and I cringed, fearing the germs that lay sleeping within his filthy mouth. Fearing too the blood rage that could so easily overcome him. I didn't fancy being his second course.

I struggled and it made him angry. So enraged he pulled hard on my head, so hard I began to see the edges of darkness closing in on me. So hard his hand came away with silky black strands.

He held my hair in his hands, well won spoils, and laughed. A hideous bastardized combination of high pitch leopard shriek and deep male laughter.

I was shaking. Brand mistook my trembling for utter fear. He was wrong. If I was capable of a blood rage, the time to release it would be now.

No fear, I reminded myself. Fear had a scent. And the last thing I needed now was for Brand to smell my fear. For a Walker he was far from dumb, he was Hiro's boss after all. The Boss who managed the drug-peddling business while hiding his true identity. He would know the fear meant I was hiding something. He'd bought my story about wanting to join his group. I hoped it would stay that way.

I knew my time was running out when he came to me again, extending his clawed finger to my neck and caressed the pounding crest of my jugular. Something in his demeanor had changed. As if he'd quit playing games with me. His eyes glowed, eager to spill the life in my veins.

My heart clenched and I knew my number was up.

***

Logan arrived at the entrance to the warehouse to be met with silence. He'd used his motorcycle which was always a means of quick getaway. At first he wondered if Kailin had actually waited for him as she'd promise despite his gut saying that wasn't going to happen.

Then he heard it. A strange shrieking laughter coming from within the darkened warehouse. Logan entered the building, treading softly, totally aware that he was walking into a place where the occupants could
, and probably would, smell him before he saw them.

He made his way through the high ceilinged warehouse, following the sound of voices and the squeak of swinging chains, avoiding hulking metal masses.

He rounded a pile of junk-metal and stopped in his tracks. His blood ran cold as he stared at Kailin, strung up on a chain hanging from the iron rafters far above. A Walker, most likely Brand, held Kailin by the hair, laughing.

Kailin's body shook so hard she made the chains squeak as they moved back and forth. Logan's eyes narrowed as he watched her. Anyone would’ve easily mistaken her shaking for fear but Logan knew her better. She shook with fury.

Then Brand asked, "So tell me, Kailin Odel. How stupid did you think I was?" Logan could feel the anger rolling off Brand in waves. Logan tensed, waiting for the right moment to make his move.

"I don't know what you mean," Kailin responded, and this time Logan heard real fear now streaking through her voice.

"You come waltzing in here, throwing off your Alpha female stink, lying to me. Pretending you don't know who I am. And you expect me to play nice?" Logan knew it wouldn't be long before Brand made his move. His ruthless reputation preceded him. Kailin's life was in danger.

Her eyes narrowed. "Get away from me you murdering bastard. I don't really give a damn who you think you are."

Brand lowered his voice and Logan strained to hear his words. "You walk into my club and ask a bunch of questions as if you had every right to. Then you waltz right in here and pretend to be an adoring fan as if I'm stupid. You know what happens to little girls like you? They always get what's coming to them." Brand sneered as he pressed his claw into Kailin's neck and slit the skin, spilling a stream of hot red blood onto his chest.

Logan didn't wait a second longer.

He exploded into the space behind Brand, sending the Walker's thugs flying in many directions. Logan grunted, satisfied as he heard the muffled grunts as bodies hit ground, and metal.

Then Logan stilled, stood perfectly motionless behind Brand, who didn't seem to care that he'd encroached on his den. Logan regulated his breathing, calmed his heart rate and reached deep within himself for the power. His eyes remained open as he channeled the power to his hands. He knew sometimes his eyes held a strange glow within them. Knew too
, that Kailin would see the glow. Would be watching as he used his fire power.

Brand had merely been buying time, waiting. He made a move to run and Logan let his fire loose. It streaked through the air, a controlled blast of heat and flame. Brand stiffened and fell to his knees so heavily Logan was sure he heard the crunch of the partially transformed Walker's knee-caps as they connected with the concrete floor. The veins at Logan's temples rose against his skin. And then Brand fell face first to the ground, and lay there unmoving. Logan wasn't taking any chances. He pulled down a length of chain and bound Brands hands and feet, leaving him trussed up on the floor of the warehouse, like a Thanksgiving turkey.