Dance in Shadow and Whisper (Marionettes of Myth #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

He told me not to step outside until his shadow arrived, and he said he would bring two others. When the black fire hit the concrete and formed three figures, I popped the lock to the front door and sidled out into the night.

A ring of keys was already in his hand, and he swung the key he needed into his thumb and forefinger and eased it into the deadbolt. With a twist, the door was locked. Another stab into the doorknob, and that was locked as well.

"You already know Leon," he said, and the vampire in question gave me a smirk that I wanted to sink my fist into. "This is Nekane, one of my sisters."

Her posture was straight and proper, her face painted lightly in doll-like makeup with a feather duster of eyelashes for each eye. Her pink lips lifted into a smile that pinched her eyes. She rolled her shoulders sweetly as she lifted her hand and fluttered her fingers in greeting. Her entire demeanor didn't match the baggy-pant black jumpsuit or the two-handed machine gun slung across her back. "Well, I've heard so very much about you," she said with a tick of her dark eyes to Yuuhi.

Yuuhi frowned at her. "Nekane."

She ignored him and dipped her head in greeting, the movement swinging the long, fluffy blond ponytail of white blond hair like a pendulum against her shoulders. "It's nice to finally meet you. You're exactly what I imagined, and I'm glad to help wherever I can."

I liked her.

But my eyebrows pressed together. "What kind of help is this for?"

Leon touted the long, polished revolvers he had once aimed at me. The familiar grinning coyote gleamed on one, the other boasting swirls of a majestic wolf riding the wind. "You don't think that that area's not gonna be monitored? They're probably waiting for you to waltz right in with a hop and a skip, straight into their happy hands."

I looked to Yuuhi. "Who are 'they'?"

"Anything," Yuuhi said. "A number of things are after you, whether to claim a bounty, hurt you, use you, or simply kill you. People are afraid of bad omens, Kali, and you bring the omen of war." His voice softened. "A Demon Allegiance lord has already been murdered over this, and it's escalated a stirring of some bad talk." As my brain worked on digesting those words, he turned to the other two. "Check every shadow first. If it's clear, stake out positions at both doors."

Leon saluted with the coyote gun and I leaned away from it. "You got it, captain."

The two of them decomposed into tendrils of black fire and darted into the shadows of the silent street. The wind picked up, blasting the scent of an approaching storm through my hair.

Yuuhi's words had turned my throat raw, but I managed to ask, "Aren't they risking a great deal for doing this? Leon's not a part of your coven."

"No, but he's a part of Cain's, who he trusts with his life and the lives of others, and Cain told him he could trust me."

And Lio told me I could trust Cain.

I barricaded the memory from overtaking my mind when I turned to him. "You're in danger for doing this too, aren't you? And Nekane?"

His dark eyes lowered to me. "No more or less than you are. How are you holding up?"

I stopped.

No one had asked me that, not even myself, so I had no answer to give. My insides turned with too much acid and I rubbed my sleek palms over my forearms. I shook my head.