Chapter 12
Moonlight cast an eerie,pale light over the gloomy alley. In the shadows of a looming building, bodies moved. Shae’s heart pounded hard, seconds from crashing through her ribs, then sun-bright eyes looked up, staring at her, his mouth fastened on a woman’sneck.
Agony surged, a vise squeezing her chest.Dagan,no!
The dream distorted, reformed… “You killed your father, it’s all your fault he’s gone—left me,” her mothercried.
“Mom, please—” Shae reached out for her, but she dissipated into the night. Instead, darkness surroundedher.
There, in the gloomy corner of the empty parking lot, her father lay on the tarmac, amidst melted ice cream.“Daddy!”Shae raced toward him. The dark shadow over him dissipated into the night, the lot lights flickering ominously. “No—nooo!” Blood seeped from several wounds, a dagger stuck out of his chest. Sobbing, she fell to her knees and wrenched the bladefree—
Hide, Shae, hide,his frantic voice echoed in her mind.“Never…”
Shae jackknifed up in bed, terror compressing her lungs. Gasping for breath, she sprang up and paced the bedroom, her arms wrapped around her body as more shudders wrackedher.
After so many years,nowshe dreamed about his death? His unfinished sentence bounced in her head.Never… What? Let them findher?
Furiously, she dashed away her tears. Uncle Lem had said it was a robbery. She didn’t believe it, not with her father’s words echoing in her head. Something about his panicked voice resonated deeply within her. Terror…forher?
She stopped near the window. Did her mother’s disappearance have anything to do with his death? Was that why she left? But nine yearslater?
God! Nothing madesense.
Shae scrubbed her damp cheeks, her fingers touching the scar on her face, wishing she knew what it all meant, andstilled.
There was one way to find out thetruth.
Urgency had her moving. She changed, then retrieved the pewter dagger with the intricately carved hilt from her knapsack, one she kept close but never used, and pushed it into her boot. From her suitcase, she took the packet of salt and shoved it into her pocket then paused. She didn’t want to bring Angelus into this, not after the debacle at the club. With Dagan still out on patrol, she didn’t want to bother him either, or worse, fight him overthis.
Shae stepped out onto the balcony and tried to recall how she’d teleported the night she killed those demons. Her palms clammy, she closed her eyes and imagined herself at the place where Dagan had briefly trained with her. There was no spot safer thanthat.
She willed her abilities free. The air shifted around her. Moments later, she took form and landed with a hard thump on a granite surface. Pain jarred up her spine and rattled her teeth.Jesus!
A blast of freezing air stole her breath but did little to soothe her troubled mind. She pushed to her feet, wincing at the ache in her butt, and zipped up her jacket. Clouds hung low and ominous. She took off in a run, stopping some distance away from the spot where the warriors usually trained, and away from the monastery. The moonlight illuminated the stark, lonely stretch of rugged plateau in front ofher.
Reclaiming the salt packet from her pocket, she marked a wide circle then placed the piece of paper with the name of the Edge demon and threeX’s around it in the center and then stepped out of the ring. “Shaximus, I summonyou…”
* * *
His hungertemporarily satiated after feeding, exhaustion sawing through him, Dagan dematerialized back to the monastery. In the courtyard, he checked the wards protecting the place. All appeared intact. He went motionless, an unsettling sensation coasting over hispsyche.
Shae!He flashed to his room. Empty. He scanned for her, but she was nowhere in the monastery. Fear clawed at his gut. He sprinted outside and scanned again. At the faint psychic vibration lingering in the air, he cursed a blue streak. What the hell had happened that she left the monasteryalone?
Catching her lingering buzz, he dematerialized. Seconds later, he reformed on the mountaintop some distance from themonastery.
An acrid odor burned his nose. His gaze clamped on the swirl of a thick, green, sulfuric cloud. A seven-foot-tall, black-skinned demon with glowing, pale eyes appeared—in front ofShae.
“What do you want, human?” the demon growled, arms folded over his enormouschest.
Shae stepped back. “To…findsomeone.”
What the hell?A roar thundering in his head, Dagan dove for her, snatching her away from the demon. “There will be no dealbrokered!”
“No—” Shae elbowed him, but he held her in a vise-like grip against his chest as the demon grew in stature, the swirling green mist becomingthicker.
“I should demand payment for time wasted, Guardian, but you will be a pain in my arse. Just this once, this is voided.” In a swirl of violent green, the demonvanished.
“Noooo!” She thumped her fists on his chest. “What have youdone?”
