Chapter 6
Crag
The woman had pushed the armchairs and coffee table off to the side to clear more space. Now she was sitting on the hardwood floor with her legs stretched out in a V, leaning to one side and then the other as she warmed up her muscles.
The clothes I’d bought her hung a little loosely on her slim frame, even though I thought I’d found the size she specified. But then, mortals seemed to have relatively few options with such a range of bodies. It was probably impossible for anything to fit the same way the clothes we shadowkind conjured onto our human-like forms did.
The slight billowing of the T-shirt couldn’t disguise the toned muscles flexing in her arms, or the strength and flexibility that showed through all her movements. From our time observing her, we knew that along with her hobby of clambering around and up various buildings, she was part of a rock-climbing club at her school.
She might never have been able to match any of us for speed or strength, but she was more capable than most humans I’d encountered. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing as far as our purposes were concerned.
I shifted my attention to Torrent where he was watching from the shadows nearby. I was meant to go out there and begin the combat training the woman had requested. That Quinn had requested—I should get in the habit of using her name. We needed her to stay at ease and compliant.
But doubts niggled at me. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked our leader. “Rollick isn’t going to want a mortal who can fight him.”
Torrent snorted. “She’d have to transform into a completely different being to present any threat to him. And if any deadly demon-killing moves occur to you, don’t teach her those. Doing some training sessions will keep her busy while I work on getting in contact with him. It wouldn’t be a horrible thing if she could pitch in during any future attacks too.”
I guessed that was a reasonable point—and Torrent knew best. I didn’t kid myself about having any head for strategy. My strength was in getting the job I was given done quickly and with all necessary impact. Lance’s mind was sharp, yes, but it was also scattered, more like a bag of pins than a blade.
The dragon shifter would probably have weighed in with one of his random, not always totally sensible remarks anyway, but he was off patrolling. We wanted to be sure no other shadowkind had caught wind of the recent beast’s discovery.
I pushed myself out of the shadows into physical form, sticking to my human guise. I didn’t imagine Quinn found me all that easy on the eyes even like this, with the rocky jaw that had prevented me from ever blending in with mortal society the way Rollick and many others did—the way Torrent used to, from what he’d said. I was a hell of a lot more imposing in my gargoyle body, though. Mortals who saw that up close tended to scream or flee, generally both.
If they were lucky. Occasionally my appearance had an even more profound effect. I was a beast, and they saw it. No point in risking those ill effects again. I knew what I was, and it allowed me to get my jobs done.
Mortals were far too fragile.
Quinn got to her feet, finished with her stretching. She set her hands on her hips. “So, where do we start?”
Shewas fragile too compared to me, in spite of her athleticism. I stepped closer and hesitated. Normally if fighting needed to be done, I leapt straight to doing it, no discussing the possibilities. And I had a very different physique to work with than she did. How was I supposed to play teacher?
Torrent had asked me to because I did know how to fight. I needed to figure it out. I knit my brow, studying her. “What would your instincts tell you to do against a mortal opponent?” We could build from there. I hoped.
Quinn tipped her head to one side as she considered the question. “Well, go for the sensitive spots like the eyes, the throat, the groin—I took a bunch of self-defense classes in my teens, and that’s what they taught us.” She demonstrated the motions she might use against a human attacker with brisk efficiency that eased my apprehension. At least my student wasn’t as green at the subject as I was at teaching.
“Hurt them enough that they’ll let you go and be too distracted to catch you, and then run away,” she went on. “That’s the basic strategy. I’m guessing it won’t be so useful against monsters, though.”
I grunted dismissively. “The same idea should apply. Hit them where it’ll hurt.”
“Oh.” She looked momentarily chagrinned, and I wondered if I’d spoken too gruffly. I’d never gotten much practice at conversing with mortals, but even my fellow shadowkind sometimes seemed taken aback. I was never sure how much it was my words that intimidated them and how much the being they saw those words coming out of. Sometimes I suspected it didn’t matter what I said, the reaction would be the same.
Often, that served my purposes just fine. But I wasn’t meant to be terrorizing this human. When she tensed up after I spoke, I had the impression that I’d failed somehow. I didn’t like the sensation.
“It would still take some adapting,” I added, forcing myself to speak more slowly. “Different body shapes.”
“And different sensitive spots?” Quinn said. “I mean… you’re basically made out of stone, right? When you’re in your ‘shadowkind’ form. Would hitting you in the throat do anything?”
“No,” I admitted. “Not to me.” She might break the bones in her hand if she hit me too hard. “But most shadowkind don’t have the same natural armor I do. And even I have sensitive spots.” I paused, wondering if it was really ideal to admit anything like this… but did I really think she’d ever stand a chance against me even with a little inside knowledge? She was tough for a human, but still terribly soft next to me.
There wasn’t a lesser shadowkind out there who could match my strength, and few higher shadowkind could either. A mortal managing it was out of the question.
“Eyes are a good target across the board,” I said. “Including for me. My ears are also sensitive if struck a particular way. And the inside of my mouth, if anyone got that far without me snapping off whatever they’d stuck inside.”
Quinn let out a nervous laugh. “I think I’ll skip testing that out. Eyes it is, then. Anything else that’s fairly common for all shadowkind?”
I pictured a fight in my head, trying to get my instincts to kick in mentally so I could figure out where I’d normally strike. The acts came so naturally I rarely thought about them at all.
“Anything nose- or snout-like, most of the time,” I said after a moment. “A good blow there can deflect an attack and possibly stun the creature for a moment.”
“That’s what you’d aim for?”
“I’d snap off their heads or tear their innards apart,” I said automatically. “That’s the only way to kill shadowkind. You won’t be doing that.”
She made a quick face. “Right. Got it.”
What else could I offer her that she could do? I frowned. “You can also go for hands or feet—especially fingers and toes. Small and easily broken.”
“Unless they’re made out of stone.”
“Of course,” I grumbled.
Her face fell just for an instant, and I realized she’d probably been attempting to make a joke. Humor was definitely not among my strengths. My gut twisted with that sense of failure, but she appeared to have already bounced back, tossing her hair over her shoulder with a smile.
Whatever Rollick had planned for her, I’d rather not make the time leading up to it more unpleasant for her than it needed to be. She didn’t seem to be a bad sort of human. It wasn’t her fault she’d attracted attention, whatever that strange, subtle energy she gave off was.
I didn’t know what to do except continue. “Positioning will be more of a concern. Some of the higher shadowkind will have human-like stances on two legs, but many of them drop to all fours—or more limbs, depending on the being—and nearly all of the lesser shadowkind have more animalistic bodies. And there’s a major range in size.”
“Higher and lesser shadowkind?” Quinn broke in with a quizzical tone.
Had no one explained that much to her yet? I wasn’t sure I was the best for it, but I was the only one available.
I motioned to myself. “Beings like me and Torrent and Lance are considered higher shadowkind. We think about more than our basic urges, talk, make plans. That sort of thing. Lesser shadowkind are… like mortal animals. Eat, sleep, fight.”
Quinn arched an eyebrow. “And fuck?”
I was pretty sure she was teasing me again, but there was an obvious answer. “No. Only higher shadowkind—who decide they want to—do that. The lesser beings don’t have any reason to. We don’t reproduce the same way mortals do.”
Both eyebrows shot up. “Really? So, how do you then? Do you lay eggs or something?”
I glowered at her. “We don’t have children at all. We just… arrive in the shadow realm, as we are.”
“Hmm. Very mysterious.”
I let out a rumble and drew myself even taller, looming over her. “Do you want to practice your defending or not?”
The amusement on Quinn’s face vanished. “Yes, of course. Sorry.”
Another twinge of guilt ran through my stomach, but she had gotten off topic. I was just getting the work done.
I crouched down so that my hands could brush the floor, an approximation of a beast on all fours. I was still far larger than most of the shadowkind that’d come at her so far, but it captured the gist of the idea.
“Give it a try,” I said. “Go for my weak spots, or the spots that would be weak on another being. Dodge when I strike at you. I won’t really hit you. We can take it slowly.”
She raised her fists but didn’t move beyond that. “Are you going to turn all stony? You don’t have your special protection like this.”
“It’s better I don’t shift,” I said, not bothering to say why. “If you land a blow hard enough to disturb me, it’ll be my own fault. But I don’t think that’s likely. You’re much softer than me even like this.”
“So cocky,” she said, and then sobered, looking down at her limbs. “But I guess you’ve got good reason to be. Okay. Let’s see. Well, if you were one of the shadowkind that’s been attacking me, you’d be leaping at me, not just sitting there.”
If she wanted me in action, I could give her action. I started forward with only half the speed I’d have given to an actual charge.
Quinn swiped at my face, aiming for my eyes. She misjudged the blow in her haste and at the unfamiliar angle, and would have clocked my forehead if I hadn’t swiveled out of the way. I bumped my shoulder against her thigh, making her wobble on her feet. The faint vibrations of energy that her body gave off, the whisper of a threat, tickled over me. Ridiculous. The lesser shadowkind should have been able to see that even without three months of observation.
Maybe they did. Maybe seeing the clang of threat coming from such an easy target incited them even more.
“You’d have fallen,” I said.
“Right onto my ass,” she agreed, and let out a rough breath. “And then the beast would pounce on me, and I’d be screwed. Again.”
I came at her a second time, and she shuffled sideways on her feet as she took her jabs, staying in motion so I couldn’t as easily trip her up. I still could have if I’d really tried, but I had to admire her speed and determination—and her quick thinking at coming up with that strategy unprompted. If she’d been a shadowkind, she could have become a formidable opponent.
She saw the benefits of switching up her tactics too. She darted to one side and then the other, and aimed for my nose and ears as well as my eyes. At one point she leapt in and stomped her heel at my braced fingers, swift enough that my own defensive inclinations kicked in. Without thinking, I jerked my hand back and smacked my other arm across the backs of her knees hard enough to topple her.
A jolt of consternation hit me an instant later. I leapt forward, swinging my forearm beneath her shoulders and catching her head inches before it hit the floor.
Quinn’s breath hitched out of her at the impact, grazing my chest with its warmth. She stared up at me looming over her, and I was abruptly aware of all the warmth contained in that softness. She wasn’t made of anything like stone beneath that tender skin.
I had the strange, ridiculous urge to trace my fingers over its delicate smoothness like I’d seen Lance do a few times. To twine my fingers into the equally soft strands of her hair where it was spilling across my hand.
Her eyes started to widen, and I shoved myself upright. She wouldn’t want my brutish hands all over her. She’d probably been worrying that I might pummel her into the ground after all.
“You’ll have to be more careful than that, Softie,” I said. Her weakness wasn’t something to admire.
Quinn winced and scrambled to her feet before I could offer to help her. She paused, studying me.
“Thank you,” she said abruptly. “I didn’t say that before, and I should have.”
I blinked at her, puzzled. “For what?”
“For fending off that thing that jumped on me in the tree. If you hadn’t gotten there so quickly…” She gave a little shudder and then met my eyes again. “Saving someone’s life seems like the kind of thing that deserves at least a thank you.”
I hadn’t noticed its absence. “It’s what I’m here for,” I said with a waft of uncertainty that left me off balance. But that was the truest thing I could have said in return. I shook off the uneasiness and flexed my muscles. “Should we continue?”
Quinn swept back her hair. “Sure, even if the training isn’t going so well. Hopefully I’ll do better against the smaller monsters.” Her hand dropped to her side, and she pulled out the tool she’d held earlier, flicking open the blade that was just one of the metal instruments it held. “Will weapons do any good against shadowkind?”
“It’s difficult to injure one of us enough to kill us, but a deep enough cut can slow us down. Let me see.”
I held out my hand, and she passed the tool over. As I grasped the handle, a prickling sensation ran through my palm. I flipped over the tool and noted the small logo embedded in the bright red material. Silver.
It was small and thin, only enough to cause a tiny discomfort, though if I’d left it pressed against my skin for a minute or two, the pain would have increased. The blade itself was steel, the iron mingled with other metals in processes that eradicated their effects on us. But it did stir an idea.
I held that thought inside as I offered the tool back to her. “If you think you have a chance of stabbing something in the eyes with that, it would be useful. Otherwise, you’ll move faster and more accurately with just your hands. A solid punch will do more than a light scratch.”
“Fair enough.” Quinn moved into a fighting stance, but before we could return to our practice session, a peal of electronic music carried down the hallway. She stiffened. “My phone. I’d better see who it is.”
I watched her hurry down the hall to the bedroom and then stepped back into the shadows where I could sense Torrent’s watchful gaze.
“She won’t manage much against any but the weakest shadowkind,” I said. “Not on her own. She could do more damage if we found her a proper weapon. A blade made from silver or iron or both, maybe?”
Torrent hummed to himself, but I recognized the skepticism in the sound before he spoke. “Let’s not take this too far. We wouldn’t want her stabbing a lovely item like that into one of us.”
“Yes,” I said. “Of course.”
Because for all Quinn thought we were here to protect her… there would come a point when stabbing us might actually make her safer.