Chapter 18
Raze
The metal-laced cords bite into my flesh, sending pain sizzling through my nerves. I thrash and snap my teeth, but everywhere I move my limbs, there seems to be more of the noxious stuff.
A basilisk caught in a net like a fish. And the indignity is only the smallest part of the crime.
Another roar bursts from my throat. A tugging sensation in my chest tells me that Peri is still being dragged farther away, radiating distress.
What are those demented humans going to do to her? Why did they take her at all?
If they hurt her even as much as they’ve already hurt me…
Snarling, I shove harder at the burning strands, but I only seem to tangle myself farther. Nearby, Hail is cursing up a storm, bringing out swear words I’ve never even heard before. Mirage emits a continuous growl alongside a frantic rustling. They must both be caught up too.
Where’s Jonah? The human in our group shouldn’t be affected by silver and iron. Why isn’t he helping us?
At that thought, I force myself to go still. It’d be awfully hard for Jonah to help us while we’re flailing around with fangs and claws gnashing. I might have been preventing my own rescue in my furor.
A slight but horrible miscalculation.
When I take in the scene around me, though, it’s clear our sorcerer isn’t going to be leaping to our rescue even when he won’t risk getting torn limb from limb. He’s sprawled by a telephone pole at the side of the road, engaged in a wrestling match of his own.
It takes me a moment to figure out what he’s struggling against. Then my jaw clenches.
One of those blazing whip-things is looped around his arms and chest, binding them to the pole. It might not sear into his skin the way it would ours, but apparently it works well enough as a makeshift rope.
All four of Peri’s mates trussed up like the rodeo came through, while she’s suffering through who knows what. When I get my claws into those wretches…
My muscles flex to resume my thrashing, but my momentary stillness has made me more alert to the exact angles of my bindings. I think I can make out one edge of the net down by my feet…
Carefully rather than frantically, I shuffle my legs back and forth. The friction of the cords sends more pain lancing through my flesh, but I manage to shift the net off one foot and then the other.
Gritting my teeth, I keep up the ridiculous squirming. Thankfully, there’s no one to see me wriggling around like a tadpole rather than a giant, lethal lizard.
Bit by bit, I work my lower body out from under the interlaced strands. My essence is still too weakened from the contact with the metals for me to manage to stand—my legs are wobbling just lying on the ground—but with a few forceful heaves, I manage to wrench the rest of my body free.
Air floods my lungs which can now expand to full capacity rather than squeezing tight against the ache. After several deep breaths, I shake off the lingering jabs of pain and sway upright. I nearly fall over again when one last surge of agony sweeps through my body.
I clutch at a nearby fire hydrant and catch my balance. With the metals off me, the pain quickly retreats. My essence knits itself back into proper health.
Hail and Mirage are still fighting with their own nets, sprawled farther down the sidewalk. My hands flex at my sides, but I don’t think I’d have the strength to yank the material off them once it starts burning me again.
Jonah, though…
I sprint over to the pole he’s bound to and wrench at the whip. Jonah pauses his struggles to let me work.
My strength can’t seem to dislodge the stream of light. It’s folded over on itself somehow, as if it’s melded right together in a way no regular strip of material could. And when I grasp any part of it for more than a few seconds, my fingers start to burn.
I bare my teeth at the weapon that’s managing to foil me even when it’s not in a hunter’s hands. “I don’t know how to get it off you.”
A sharp twinge of pain radiates through my connection with Peri, followed by a trickle of fear. My head jerks toward the direction those sensations are coming from.
I can feel them so much more vividly now that my own distress isn’t overwhelming my senses… or maybe she’s feeling significantly worse than she was a few minutes ago.
Jonah must be picking up on her emotional state too. He gazes up at me with widened eyes. “Get to Peri. If you have the chance to alert Rollick or any of his people, do it, but—we can’t let anything happen to her.”
We’re on the same page there. I nod and hurtle into the shadows without another word.
I’ve only run down a few streets, veering to one side and the other as I track the impressions I’m getting from Peri, before frustration nips at my heels. Even racing through the shadows, I can’t move as quickly as an army jeep that rumbles past me.
The asshole humans threw my mate into a van. They sped off far faster than I’m moving now. Every second I’m away from her is another second they could be tormenting her.
How hard could it be to operate one of those hunks of metal anyway? I’ve watched Jonah do it plenty of times.
Cars, trucks, and vans are parked here and there between the makeshift shelters of the camp. I steer away from anything with the blotchy army coloring, leaping from vehicle to vehicle in search of one with the key or fob that’ll turn on the engine.
There! Someone’s left their car running, the door cracked open while they must have run off to grab something. They’ll just have to excuse me grabbing their ride for a short while.
I dive into the driver’s seat while yanking myself into physical form. My spine jars against a seat pressed a little too close to the steering wheel for comfort, but I don’t have time to fiddle with the controls. Someone’s already shouting in alarm from behind me.
I tug the door all the way closed and step on the pedal that makes the car go.
The engine groans, but the vehicle doesn’t move. I peer at the stick next to my seat and remember that it’s supposed to be next to D for drive. P for park is getting me nowhere.
Footsteps pound toward me. I yank the stick and slam my foot on the gas again.
The car lurches forward at a speed I wasn’t prepared for. I jerk at the wheel to stop it from careening right into a tent and then in the other direction so I don’t run over a shadowkind being who was crossing the street.
The figure I nearly crashed into blinks at me and then leaps into the shadows. Well, I guess I’ve probably just informed Rollick that there’s a problem, one way or another.
I aim the car away from the mass of tents and people until there are a lot fewer obstacles on either side of me that I could slam into. Peri’s off to my left. I haul on the wheel again, and the car bounces off the road across the packed dirt of the nearby terrain.
I’m getting closer. When I find them, they’re going to regret ever setting their hands on my mate.
My anger brings my fangs to my gums and my claws poking from my fingertips even in my human-like form. I itch to stretch into my full basilisk body, but I suspect directing the car as a giant lizard will be quite a bit harder than it already is as a sort-of man.
As pebbles rattle against the undercarriage, another waft of emotion reaches me. It’s still twined with anxiety, but there’s a warm glow of affection mixed in.
For me, because Peri can tell I’m coming?
The sensation spreads through my nerves, and a knot forms in my gut.
I jumped in to protect her from attackers before… and ended up nearly causing a total disaster in human-shadowkind relations. We know a lot of people are scared of us. Charging in there and slaughtering all of them the way I’m craving is only going to make the rest more frightened.
What will the army people do if they find out I eviscerated a dozen humans this time? Will they send their new hunter and sorcerer friends against us and all our other allies?
My hands squeeze around the wheel so tightly my claws gouge the material covering it.
I have to defend my mate. I have to make them pay…
But what if there are better ways of making them pay that don’t come back to hurt us even more? That’s what Peri would want, isn’t it?
She’s the one who taught me I could be more than just a killer. That my power doesn’t have to be completely brutal.
My gut stays knotted, but a spot of warmth blooms in my chest alongside the stream of her love. I want to protect my mate and make her proud.
My sense of her presence grows stronger by the second. I swerve around a stand of trees, wincing at the screech of a branch I didn’t quite avoid scraping the roof.
A cluster of human figures comes into view up ahead next to a familiar van.
As I hit the brakes, the humans startle and scramble apart. I spot Peri’s vibrant turquoise hair in their midst where she’s sitting in a chair. Her head ticks toward me, but it looks like her arms and legs are tied in place.
A growl slips from my lips. I spring into the open air through the shadows, not bothering with the door.
A few of the humans are running toward me rather than away, holding more of their nets and whips. I’m ready for them this time.
Before they get within ten feet of me, I narrow my eyes and let just the thinnest punch of poison exude from my basilisk gaze.
One and then another figure goes rigid and topples over on the ground. More of their companions charge over, having grabbed weapons of their own, but they hesitate after seeing how quickly I took down their colleagues.
I don’t care if they’re having second thoughts. I’m not leaving anyone willing to fling those toxic things at me conscious while I free my mate.
A renewed flare of rage hazes my vision. I suck in a breath and shut my eyes for long enough to quell the worst of my fury.
I will not let their monstrousness make me more of a monster.
With rigid control, I glance from one to the next of our attackers. They drop like flies in a gust of insect spray, but they’re not dead.
A few others remain, huddled by the van empty-handed. I stride toward them and Peri, letting my voice come out harsh. “Do I need to knock you out too?”
“No! No, please, no! Don’t kill us!” One of the men cowers with his hands raised in appeal.
I grimace at him. “I didn’t kill anyone. They’ll wake up in a couple of hours—when my mate and I are far away from you. I don’t hurt people when I don’t need to.”
“That’s right,” Peri says, her voice as bright as the sun.
When I look at her, her beaming smile lights me up the way nothing else can. I hustle the rest of the way to her, eyeing the glinting ropes wrapped around her limbs—
And a roar that’s not mine reverberates over the low hill several paces away from us.
As I brace in reaction, a tiger-like creature with talons protruding from its paws—and too many other places as well—crashes down the slope. It barrels toward the van and the three humans now frozen in fear there.
I have to admit that my first instinct is to let it have them. Why should I extend myself to shield three beings who held my mate prisoner?
But in that first instant, it’s obvious that if I don’t intervene, the warped shadowkind will kill them. And I can’t convince myself that’s particularly better than if I had murdered them.
Restraining a sigh of resignation, I spring into the creature’s path.
I don’t kill it either. It deserves the chance for Peri’s joyful energy to work her magic and simmer down its temper, if this being is capable of chilling out. Like with the humans, I only aim a portion of my gaze’s power at the creature.
At first, it merely stumbles. Shadowkind aren’t quite as fragile as mortal beings. When I glower at it with a little more intensity, it stiffens up. It flops over on its side with a whoomph and a spray of dust.
The humans stare at the creature that nearly mowed them down, their jaws slack. I will my contacts back into my eyes and glower at them in the non-basilisk way. “You’re welcome. Now how about you untie my mate?”
Two of them just gape at me too, but the third rushes over to pry at Peri’s bindings.
“Thank you,” my mate says, sweet as anything, as if this prick wasn’t one of the people who took her captive in the first place.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to see as much good in other beings as she always can.
As I spin toward her, I realize our skirmish has an audience. A couple of news vans pulled up while I was distracted by my need to rescue my mate. The camerapeople are recording nervously from beside their vehicles.
One reporter backs up a step and hollers at me from across the distance. “Please, don’t hurt anyone else.”
I frown, but before I can answer, one of his colleagues takes a cautious step forward instead. “I don’t think—That car I saw you steal. Did you need to get here to help your friend? What have you done to the people who took her?”
I will my fangs to retract into my gums and smooth as much gruffness out of my voice as I can. She’s asking questions rather than making accusations. That seems like a good sign.
“They kidnapped my mate and tied her up,” I say.
“For no reason! She was trying to help the city. I know a lot of you are scared, but…” I inhale deeply.
“I used my powers to knock these people unconscious. They’re still alive.
You can check them to make sure. We can treat humans fairly. I wish they’d do the same for us.”
To my surprise, an awed expression crosses the woman’s face. “They grabbed your… your mate, and you still saved them from the creature that was coming at them?”
I shrug. “More beings dead doesn’t help anyone. I do what I can.”
As those words leave my mouth, it occurs to me with a pang in my chest just how true they are… and just how much I can do when I keep control of myself.
Maybe being a monster isn’t so bad if it means I can accomplish as much as I did here today.
Peri dashes over and wraps her arms around my waist. “Raze saves people whenever he has the chance. And we’re going to keep doing that as long as you let us.”