I hit the floor just as hard as the wall, and pain flared across my back. I ignored it, and swiped irritably at the warm liquid spilling from the slashes on my cheek.
But the scent of blood that filled the air wasn"t only mine. Kade had managed to move away from the doorway, but he"d been backed into a corner by the bakeneko and his right arm was shredded so badly I could see strips of bone in places. He"d had time enough to grab a metal chair from the dining area, and that was the only thing standing between him and the bakeneko"s b.l.o.o.d.y fury. But the metal was having trouble standing up to the force of the creature"s blows, with huge dents marring the various struts. I had no idea where his laser was. Like mine, it had obviously been sent flying when the bakeneko attacked.
She was ma.s.sive-a big black monster who stood at shoulder height with the horse-shifter. Her paws were the size of d.a.m.n plates, and her claws were thick and brutally sharp.
We needed to get rid of her-fast.
I scrambled to my feet, then had to thrust my hand against the wall as dizziness. .h.i.t. I shook my head to clear it, sending droplets of crimson scattering across the pristine whiteness, then spotted a laser on the floor and dove left to grab it. I wrapped my finger around the trigger, making the weapon hum, but I resisted the urge to fire. Kade was right behind the bakeneko, which meant I couldn"t take a shot. Not when the power of these things could shoot holes through concrete walls and still kill someone on the other side. Even if I moved around to the other side, it wouldn"t help. She"d sense the movement and shift to counter.
The bakeneko snarled and raised a paw for another swipe at Kade. I sighted on it and pressed the trigger. The blue beam shot out, but, as I"d feared, the bakeneko saw it and moved. The beam missed flesh, piercing the thick window beyond the two of them and disappearing into the gray day.
The creature roared-a sound thick with fury-then, surprisingly, she spun and leapt for the same window. I shot again, but the b.i.t.c.h was moving too fast and the shot did little more than singe hair from her back before shooting another hole through the gla.s.s, further weakening it.
Kade dove forward, trying to grab the creature"s tail, but there was so much blood on his hands that he couldn"t get a grip.
The creature hit the window headfirst. The gla.s.s shattered, the thick shards glittering as they followed the creature out into the chill afternoon.
"s.h.i.t," Kade said, running to the broken window and staring out.
I quickly joined him. My stomach rebelled instantly at the drop, but I shoved the old fear away and concentrated on our quarry. The big cat was tumbling tail over head toward the concrete, but at the last possible minute seemed to find her balance and landed on all fours. We were five floors up, but the d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h didn"t even seem to notice.
In fact, she didn"t even appear to be limping as she ran up the street, her presence causing squeals of panic as people scattered to get out of her way. I raised the laser but didn"t dare take a shot-the bakeneko was moving so fast there was no guarantee I"d get her. But I sure as h.e.l.l would get someone down there.
"Well, at least we know how she got out of James"s office." I slapped the laser against Kade"s chest, then scrambled up onto the sill. "I have the tracker on. Follow me in the car."
"I didn"t think you could fly-"
"I can"t," I snapped. "At least, not very well. But not very well might just make the difference here. Go."
He went, though his expression very much suggested he expected to find me splattered on the pavement when he got down there.
I took a deep breath, then reached for the magic deep in my soul, holding the gull shape in my mind and feeling the power of it surge through my limbs, twisting and changing my shape.
In gull shape once more, I spread my wings, then closed my eyes and jumped. For a moment the sensation of falling was so overwhelming that panic surged, then I remembered the need to actually fly and began to pump my wings. Felt the surge of air rushing past my feathers and the sensation of falling ended abruptly.
I opened my eyes and saw the pavement sweep by inches from my belly. Relief slithered through me, though the reality was that smashing against the pavement had been a close thing, and only emphasized the need to go back to Henry and practice this flying thing a whole lot more.
I swept upward, gaining height so I could see past the buildings and traffic, and spotted the bakeneko in the distance. She was little more than a blur of black, her presence more notable through the wave of pedestrians that were scrambling to get out of her way. She raced around a corner, moving away from Lygon but toward Rathdown Street, then swung left and kept on running.
I followed, wondering where the h.e.l.l she was going and hoping like h.e.l.l she didn"t go too far. The muscles in my wings and chest were beginning to ache already. I might be fit, but I wasn"t flying fit.
I couldn"t see Kade"s car, but he might have been caught in traffic. Not all Directorate cars had sirens, which made dashing through red lights something of a hazard.
I just had to hope that he was near. That he was following the tracker okay. I didn"t want to face this thing alone.
It raced on, a black blur that seemingly felt no weariness. Shops and apartments gave way to a mix of cafes, small houses, and warehouses. Rathdown Street came to a junction and, for the first time, the bakeneko paused, nose in the air. Undoubtedly tasting the breeze for any sign of followers. I hoped I was already high enough up to avoid being scented, because I just didn"t have the energy to climb any farther.
Her form began to shimmer, shift, until a tall, blonde woman stood in place of the black cat. She hitched the torn shoulder of her bloodied dress back into place then more shimmering took place, and the dress itself changed, until it was no longer torn or bloodied. Which meant it was part of the magic rather than a reality. Interesting.
Her shoes had disappeared when she"d shifted the shape of her dress, and she was now barefoot as she padded across the road. She walked quickly through the park, skirting a wooden fence before moving into the parking lot of what looked to be an abandoned warehouse. I circled around to watch, though the effort of holding my wings still enough to glide made my limbs tremble.
The bakeneko raised a fist and casually broke down the door, then disappeared inside. I flew around the perimeter, looking for other possible exits. There were plenty of windows and doors in the place, but after five minutes of circling, there was no further sign of her. Maybe she intended to hole up here-she had no reason to run any farther, after all, because she thought she was safe. Although we weren"t dealing with anything that remotely thought the way a human did, so who knew what it was actually intending?
I continued to circle, watching the exit points for any sign of movement, but the building remained silent. A few minutes later, I saw a blue Ford pull up. Kade exited and looked up at the sky.
I swung around and headed toward him, shifting shape as I neared the ground. It took several stumbling steps to gain any sort of balance, and then it only happened because Kade grabbed my arm and held me upright.
"G.o.d, you"re trembling."
"Yeah, flying really isn"t my style." I shook my limbs in an effort to ease the ache. It didn "t actually help much. "The bakeneko has holed up inside the warehouse."
Kade"s gaze went past me, and he frowned. "There"s lots of exit points. If we go in, she can escape very easily."
"Yeah." I touched my ear lightly. "Riley to Directorate."
"We"ve been listening," Jack said. "I"ve got two bird-shifters on the way. They"ll watch the outside while you two go in."
"ETA?"
He paused, then said, "Two minutes. Iktar will be there in five."
"Tell him to take the main front entrance. We"re going in through the parking lot." I paused, then added, "And tell him to be careful. This thing is big and bad."
"Then you be careful, too."
"You know me. I"m always careful."
His disbelieving snort rang in my ears.
I hesitated, then asked, "No word from the hospital?"
"None yet, I"m afraid."
d.a.m.n. The knot in my stomach tightened a little bit more, but I did my best to push the worry aside. I had a killer to catch, and if I didn"t dedicate all my attention to it, I might just end up in hospital right alongside Liander.
That would really make Rhoan"s day complete.
"So we"re going in?" Kade asked.
"We have no choice."
He handed me a laser, then pulled the other one free from the waist of his pants. A dangerous place to shove it, I would have thought. "And help is coming?"
I glanced skyward. Two brown dots were soaring high up. I couldn"t help the sliver of envy at the ease of which they did that. "Our eyes are in the sky. Iktar will be coming in around the front."
He pressed the laser"s trigger lightly and the weapon whined as it charged up. "Let"s go, then."
I switched my laser on, then followed him across to the building, keeping as low and as close to cover as possible.
Hopefully, the roar of traffic going up and down nearby Brunswick Road would mute the sound of our steps.
With the doorway reached, I pressed my back against the grimy brick wall, feeling the chill of it seep into my spine. Beyond the smashed door, the warehouse was dark and silent. No creaks, no wind moaning through broken gla.s.s, nothing that seemed spooky or out of place.
Yet I was spooked regardless. Probably because I knew what lay in wait.
I met Kade"s gaze. He held up three fingers, then pointed to the left. I nodded and silently counted. At three, I slipped in the doorway, laser raised and held at the ready as my gaze swept the room.
Silence met me. The air was thick with the scent of oil and age, the walls grimy and slick looking. The room itself was filled with shadows, despite the light filtering in through dirty windows. Perfect conditions for a black cat who wanted to remain unseen.
There was a concrete ramp to my left and a walkway that went up and around the room. Several doorways led off into deeper darkness from this. To the right was a set of high double doors. They were solid looking and padlocked, so the bakeneko hadn"t gone that way.
I glanced back at Kade and motioned him in. He moved to the right, nostrils flaring as he made a sweeping motion with the gun.
"She knows we"re here."
Though he kept his voice to a whisper, his words seemed to slide off the walls as sharply as a bell being rung. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I was so d.a.m.n tense.
"I can sense amus.e.m.e.nt coming from the general direction of door number two." "I would have thought she"d be angry more than amused."
"Well, a human probably would be, but this thing isn"t human."
Very true. I blew out a breath, then quickly moved up the ramp and across to the first doorway. The deeper darkness looked unwelcoming. Despite the fact that Kade had sensed amus.e.m.e.nt coming from the direction of the other doorway, the smell of cat was coming thick and sharp from this one. Maybe the two corridors were linked farther in.
Maybe it was all part of the bakeneko"s plan. After all, cats delighted in toying with their prey.
Kade halted beside me. I motioned toward the door and gave the low signal. He nodded.
I blinked to switch my vision to infrared, then went in fast and low. Nothing moved in the corridor. Several doors led off it, but all of them were closed. A set of double doors waited at the far end. I centered my laser on it, then nodded a go-ahead.
Kade came in and moved quickly but quietly to the first doorway. With his back to the wall and laser at the ready, he wrapped his free hand around the handle then thrust the door open. Nothing jumped out at him. He checked the room visually, then glanced at me and shook his head.
I scampered to the next doorway and repeated his actions while he watched the double doors. There was nothing in the small room but rubbish and broken furniture. The other two remaining rooms were also empty.
Which left us with the double doors and whatever lay beyond them.
The cat smell was no sharper than before, and yet my skin tingled with awareness of her presence. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was my clairvoyance trying to send me a warning I really didn"t need, but either way, we had no choice but to continue on through our chosen route.
I glanced at Kade and half-motioned that I"d go through first, but froze as footsteps whispered across the silence.
Human footsteps, moving gently away.
Then laughter, soft and mocking.
The b.i.t.c.h definitely knew we were here.
I stepped forward and kicked the door open. On the other side, nothing but the darkness of a large room was revealed. I waited until the door had whooshed back toward us, then dove through the opening, coming back up onto one knee and quickly scanning the room. No bakeneko. Just her scent riding the heavy, musty air.
"She"s definitely playing," I said softly, as Kade came through the door.
"I don"t care what she does, as long as we kill her at the end of it." He nodded toward the stairs at the far end of the room.
"She gone up that?"
"Smells like it."
"Then let"s go."
He led the way, his footsteps echoing across the silence. There was no point in being silent any longer. She knew we were here, and given a cat"s hearing had to be as sharp as a wolf"s, she would probably hear us regardless of how quiet we were.
We raced up the steps and ended up in a corridor that was long, thin, and even darker than the room below. There were eight doors leading off the corridor, and a larger, double set waiting at the far end.
"This place is a f.u.c.king maze," Kade muttered, disgust in his voice. "Though our quarry seems to have run straight toward the door at the end."
""Seems" being the operative word," I said, not trusting the fact that it was slightly open one little bit. I drew my gaze back to the nearest rooms. "Though infrared isn"t bringing up any life-heat close by."
"The b.i.t.c.h is here somewhere, so let"s go find her."
He strode forward, seemingly free of the fear that was twisting my stomach. It was weird. I mean, I "d faced things far worse than this bakeneko, and yet I was practically shaking at the thought of confronting her.
Maybe it was simply the knowledge of what she could do.
Being dead was one thing. We all had to go sometime, after all. But being dead and having your soul eaten was another matter entirely. I wasn"t at all sure that I believed in reincarnation, but I sure as h.e.l.l wanted my soul to hang around and find out.
We moved forward as before, checking each room thoroughly before continuing on. Despite my fears, there were no traps waiting in any of them.
But the cat smell was getting stronger.
Which meant we were getting closer.
I stopped at the ajar door and glanced at Kade. He pointed at me, then to the right, and raised five fingers. I nodded and sucked in a breath, releasing it silently as I counted.
At five, we kicked out the doors and ran through-me to the right, Kade to the left.
The room was large and filled with windows, but the light seeping in was yellow and dusky. There were plenty of shadows for a cat to hide in.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I twisted around and sighted, the whine of the laser cutting through the silence as my finger pressed against it. I released it when I saw that it was something small and furry with a very long tail.
Not a cat. More likely a rat. I blew out a breath and continued on, keeping to walls and running low. Kade was on the other side, keeping pace with me simply because I wasn"t moving at vampire speed. The whine of his laser was a sharp echo of mine.
Again, something moved in the shadow. I swung the laser around, but it was only another rat, scampering along the wall.
Which was odd. We weren"t anywhere near the rats to scare them, so if they were running from the cat, why couldn"t we d.a.m.n well see her?
Even under infrared, there was no sign of life other than the rats.
Then it hit me.
The bakeneko could change sizes. Why wouldn"t she be able to go smaller than a tabby as well as larger?