Darkness Unbound

  Amusement teased the corners of his lips. “Never, my sweet.”

  “So there was no need for impatience now, was there?” I squatted down beside the guard and pressed two fingers against his neck. His pulse was rapid but strong. He might be out right now, but I doubted it would last all that long. I removed his shirt, tore it into strips, then tied his hands and feet together. I used the remainder to stanch the shoulder wound. I didn’t want him bleeding to death before Rhoan got here.

  “Um, I could use a little attention myself,” Tao commented.

  I squatted beside him. His hands had been chained tightly behind his back, and his wrists were raw and bloody. The silver was eating into his skin.

  “Azriel,” I called softly.

  Tao jumped when the reaper appeared next to him. “Damn,” he muttered, “I wish you’d give some warning before you do that. You could send a less sturdy heart into failure.”

  “Given your heart is sturdy, I don’t see the problem.” Azriel glanced at me. “You wish me to melt the chain?”

  “Please.”

  He released Valdis and the sword began to hiss and spit fire. Azriel frowned. “There is magic attached to that silver.”

  “Ilianna said that Tao had been spelled to prevent him using his fire—could the chain be the source?”

  “Possibly.” He passed the tip of Valdis over the links, not quite touching them. The hissing grew more intense. “The spell is twofold. One is containment, the other is notification.”

  I paused. “You can tell this by just passing the sword over the links?”

  “I can’t. But Valdis can.”

  “Hang on,” Tao said, craning his neck around to see what Azriel was doing. “Who the hell is Valdis?”

  “The sword,” Azriel and I answered together. I added, “So the Charna will be warned when you melt the links?”

  “Something will.” His gaze met mine. “It may not necessarily be the witch.”

  “I don’t care what comes after us,” Tao said. “Just get the fucking things off.”

  “I wouldn’t advise—”

  “Do it,” I cut in. “Silver is poison to wolves, and it’s already eating into his wrists.”

  He stared at me for a moment, then said, “If I melt the cuffs, the Charna will know Tao is free. Which may endanger Stane’s life.”

  “Stane?” Tao said. “Why the hell would he be in danger?”

  “Long story.” I rubbed my eyes wearily. “Azriel’s right. We can’t risk it until Stane and the others—”

  I cut the sentence off at the sound of footsteps and moved swiftly to the door. I flared my nostrils, sifting through the flavors in the air, recognizing Stane’s scent mixed with the spice of a stranger. Another human, which was good. He wouldn’t scent either us or the blood.

  “Hank, Terry, where the hell are you two?”

  The voice was coming from the loading bay end of the hallway. I crept forward.

  “Fuck it,” the stranger said. “If you two are goofing off again, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

  I lowered myself to the ground and carefully inched forward on my belly. The shadows were thicker near the floor, and while I doubted the guard would actually see me, I took every precaution and moved as quietly as I could. One wrong move could get Stane killed.

  I risked a look around the corner. Stane was walking in front of the guard and didn’t appear restrained in any way, though his expression was tight and his shoulders tense. His nostrils flared as he breathed deep, then his gaze flicked down. I held up three fingers, keeping the movements small so as to not attract the attention of the man behind him, and nodded toward the left. He smiled grimly in acknowledgment.

  I counted down my fingers. As the last one dropped, he threw himself sideways. I raised the weapon and fired, again aiming for the shoulder. The guard grunted and dropped. Stane ensured he was out with a quick fist to the face, then glanced back at me. “Tao?”

  “Alive and well. Was there only one guard?”

  Stane nodded as he flipped the man around and pulled his jacket halfway down his arms, effectively pinning them. Then he pulled the man’s belt free and strapped his legs together. “What about the witch and the men in charge?”

  “None of them is here.”

  “Obviously. But can we trace them?”

  “Maybe.”

  I turned and walked back to the cell. He followed, and his anger surged, tainting the air, when he saw Tao.

  Tao grinned and said, “Hey, you should see the other guy.”

  “I can. And I’m barely resisting the urge to kick him repeatedly when he’s down.”

  I squeezed Stane’s shoulder and glanced at Azriel. “You want to release Tao now?”

  “Do you think that wise when Stane is in the room? You and I can protect ourselves from whatever might be bound to the restraints, but Stane has little except his own strength.”

  “Hey, I have Ilianna’s charm and I can fight—”

  Azriel’s glance barely even flicked his way. “The charm protects you against being spelled, not magic of this sort.”

  “But—”

  I touched his arm lightly, stopping him. “He’s right. Ilianna’s in the parking lot across the road. Go keep her safe, just in case the Charna doesn’t send only magic against us.”

  He grunted unhappily, but spun on his heel and headed out. I waited until the sound of his steps had faded away, then glanced at Tao. “You ready?”

  “If you don’t do it soon, I’m not going to have any fucking wrists left.”

  Azriel touched Valdis’s tip to the links. The hissing ramped up, becoming fever-pitched, then the links simply exploded. Shrapnel spun through the darkness, embedding itself into the walls but somehow avoiding skin.

  “The notification spell was in fact a minor demon,” Azriel said. “It has left to warn the Charna. I can trace its path.”

  I blinked. “There was a demon spelled to the cuffs?”

  “Yes. It is a messenger, nothing more.”

  “Glad no one told me,” Tao muttered, gingerly pulling his shirt away from his torn and bloody wrists. “I think I would have freaked out.”

  “So once warned, won’t the Charna attack? That’s what we want, right?” I asked.

  Azriel didn’t answer immediately, his expression intent and his head cocked to one side, as if he were listening to something.

  Unease raced through me, and I glanced nervously over my shoulder. The corridor beyond remained shadowed and quiet, and I had no sense that there was anyone or anything in the warehouse but us.

  And yet …

  I shivered, and resisted the temptation to rub my arms. The silence suddenly seemed charged. Threatening.

  Tao climbed carefully to his feet. Flame danced briefly across his fingertips, and his smile was cold when his gaze met mine. “I hope she does attack. I’ll enjoy watching her burn.”

  “It is not the Charna that is coming,” Azriel said. Valdis, still clenched in his hand, was running with angry blue flames.

  That cold, hard lump tightened in my gut, and for a moment I couldn’t even speak. “Then what is?” I managed eventually.

  “Hounds,” he said softly. “Hellhounds.”

  “HELLHOUNDS?” TAO SAID, HIS VOICE INCREDULOUS. “As in rabid black dogs straight from the bowels of hell?”

  Azriel glanced at him. “Yes. I can feel the force of them.”

  So could I. That electric sensation in the air was getting stronger, and the air around us was beginning to stir. It was almost as if the hounds were preceded by a wind of evil. “Can you stop them?

  “Yes.” He glanced at me. “But it will mean letting the Charna go free. Even now, the messenger’s trail is fading.”

  “Then why are you standing here?” Tao said, with all the determination of a man who had never heard Aunt Riley’s stories about the hounds and just what they were capable of. “The sooner you trace and stop the Charna, the sooner those hounds will be sent back
to the hell they came from, right?”

  “Right.” Azriel’s gaze didn’t move from mine. Waiting. Judging.

  If he was looking for bravery, he wasn’t going to find it. I was terrified—so terrified that my legs were barely supporting me, my gut was churning, and I thought I might puke. But if the Charna was to be stopped, I couldn’t let fear sway my decisions.

  I clenched my fist and said, “Do it. But hurry.”

  He bowed, ever so slightly. For a heartbeat, I swear there was a glimmer of respect in his eyes. But maybe that was a trick of the firelight gleaming off Tao’s hands. “Do not attempt to use your Aedh gifts to reach into their flesh and rip them apart. It will destroy you.”

  Tao glanced from me to Azriel and back again. “What the hell is he talking about?”

  “If I take Aedh form, I can seep into flesh and tear it apart,” I said absently. Tao swore, but my gaze stayed on Azriel as I added, “Why not?”

  “Because they are not flesh, nor are they energy. They are spirits—essences of evil, if you like. They cannot be pulled apart like flesh beings.”

  “Okay, that’s a gruesome skill,” Tao muttered.

  Azriel added, “Do what you must to keep alive, Risa Jones. I shall return as quickly as I am able.”

  With that, he disappeared.

  I briefly closed my eyes and swallowed back the bitter taste of bile.

  A taste that got worse when the howling began.

  I ran for the door and slammed it shut. The hounds might be demons, but they held flesh when on earth, and as flesh beings, a locked door would delay them—if only for a moment. But every moment we delayed them was a moment for Azriel to track down the dark bitch.

  The howling grew closer. I stripped off my shirt, tearing it in half, then wrapping the remnants around my hands. Once my skin was protected, I pulled two of the bigger pieces of silver from the walls. The largest shard was barely two inches long, but it was curved and jagged, and was a better weapon than just hands.

  I backed away and joined Tao near the rear wall. The flames still burned across his hands, filling the room with an eerie, yellow-white radiance.

  “Do you think fire is actually going to hurt them?” he said, his gaze on the door.

  The howling was getting closer, and the smell of death, decay, and ash was beginning to ride the air. Riley had never mentioned the smell, but maybe she’d never come across this type. There was more than just the one kind of hound.

  “As Azriel said, the hounds are demons, not true flesh and blood. Their outer skin might burn, but they will probably just form more.”

  “Comforting thought,” he muttered.

  The scent was becoming thick and cloying, filling my nose and catching low in my throat, making it difficult to breathe.

  They were close. So close.

  Then the howling stopped. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

  Tao doused the flames on one hand, then repeated my earlier actions, tearing off a shirtsleeve and wrapping it around his bloodied hand before he grabbed a silver shard from the floor. “You know, I’m not feeling too comforted by this little bit of—”

  He cut the words off as something hit the door. The wood shuddered and splintered. There was a brief pause, then the door shuddered again. The wood fractured further, and the lock pulled away from the frame, hanging on by little more than two rusting screws. Through the gap I could see two dark, sinewy shapes.

  With the third blow, it gave way, and the door crashed back against the wall. Tao released his flames, filling the doorway with fire. The creatures stepped through it, their heads low, their red eyes glowing brightly against the inferno surrounding them. Thick yellow teeth gleamed eerily as the pair of them snarled.

  Then they leapt, their bodies aflame. I dove to one side and slashed upward with the shard. The silver sliced through the creature’s burning flesh, melting it like butter. Thick, black blood splattered across my body, stinging like acid where it touched bare flesh. The amulet at my neck burned even brighter.

  The creature hit the wall, twisted, and leapt again. I rolled away from it, but its teeth slashed, scoring my thigh. Pain rolled through me, thick and hot. Or maybe that was the blood pulsing down my leg. I didn’t know. I didn’t have the time to find out. I pushed to my feet, saw the thing leap again, and lashed out wildly with the shards. Again they met burning flesh. More black blood sprayed, but the silver wasn’t stopping it. These shards—and the two of us—were never going to be enough to stop the creature.

  We had to get out of here if we wanted to survive.

  And I could see only one way of achieving that—by doing what Azriel had done when he’d rescued me from the tunnel.

  The thought terrified me. God, I hadn’t even known it was possible to extend the Aedh shift to another person until Azriel had done it. How the hell could I ever hope to pull off the same trick and not shred Tao like a cheap bra?

  I’d kill him. I’d kill me.

  But what other choice did we have? Staying here was a death sentence. At least if I attempted the shift, we had a chance—albeit a very small one.

  I ducked another leap, then twisted and ran for Tao, calling to the Aedh within me as I leapt straight at him. I could feel the hound behind me, feel the wash of its fetid breath against my neck. I knew it was going to be close. I hit Tao hard, heard his grunt in surprise as I wrapped myself around him. Saw the gleam of yellowed teeth as the creatures leapt at us …

  Power surged through me, around me, a fear-fueled storm that shattered both our forms, tearing us apart swiftly and brutally, until there was nothing left but two streams of tremulous smoke, separated and yet together.

  In that state, I fled the cell.

  It was hard—harder than I’d ever imagined it could be. Every particle ached, as if carrying Tao was a physical weight even in this ethereal form.

  I wouldn’t—couldn’t—go far. But the minute we reformed, those hounds would come after us. They had our scent. Had the taste for our flesh.

  We needed to find somewhere safe. Somewhere as far away from Ilianna and Stane as we could get.

  I could think of only one place.

  I didn’t really believe in heaven or God as such, but if ever there was a sanctuary from hellhounds, then surely a church would be it. After all, holy water and blessed knives could destroy them, so there had to be some form of protection offered by churches themselves.

  If I was wrong, we were dead meat. I wasn’t going to be much use fighting-wise after this flight. Tao—who’d been caught so unaware by this move—wouldn’t be, either.

  Hell, he probably wouldn’t even be coherent.

  Tao’s weight forced me low to the ground as I fled the building. I whisked along the street, feeling the grime of the concrete seeping through my pores, feeling the terror of what we were fleeing pulse through every aching part of me.

  The streets were quiet still, but I could hear the howling of the hounds. They were hunting for us. If I could have shivered, I would have.

  I rolled on, heading for the small brick building I’d seen on the way down here. It was only a couple of blocks away, but it might as well have been several miles. By the time I whisked underneath the old wooden doors, I was barely holding it together.

  I stopped near the pulpit and reached for the Aedh magic once more, carefully piecing together our two separate entities, until flesh was fully formed and we became ourselves once again.

  I landed with a splat on the old wooden flooring, and even though I wanted to do nothing more than collapse, I twisted around, ignoring the red-hot needles that jabbed into my brain as I looked for Tao.

  He was lying several feet away, his clothes shredded but his flesh whole. And he was breathing.

  I hadn’t killed him.

  The relief that swept me was so great that for several seconds I could barely even breathe. It had worked. Against all the odds, we were out of the cell, we were alive, and for the moment, we were safe.


  But shifting with another person in tow was something I never wanted to attempt again.

  I closed my eyes and waited until the shaking and the sweeping bouts of dizzy nausea eased, and I became aware of groaning. Not mine. Tao’s.

  “You okay?” I asked, my voice sounding as wretched as I felt.

  “What the fuck,” he said, his voice whispery and filled with pain, “did you just do?”

  “I saved our asses.”

  But for how long? The second we’d regained flesh the howls had intensified, and even now I could feel the ill wind of their approach. If the church didn’t stop them, I didn’t know what would. There would be silver somewhere in this church, but I really doubted we’d have the time to find it.

  I forced myself to roll over onto my stomach, then closed my eyes again, breathing deep and trying to ease the quivering. When it finally began to ease, I looked around.

  The church was small and sparse, with old wooden benches for seating and little in the way of decoration other than the beautiful, stained-glass windows. The fading sunlight filtered through the glass, filling the barren interior with rainbows and warmth. The place was still, with nothing to break the silence other than our uneven breathing. This church might still be in use, but there was no priest here at the moment. I wondered whether it would make a difference to the hellhounds or not.

  I guess we’d find out soon enough.

  I gathered my strength and forced myself upright. If death was my fate, then I’d damn well meet it on two feet, not four.

  Tao stared up at me from his prone position. His face was ashen, his clothes little more than a mess of barely-held-together threads, and the bits of flesh that were exposed were covered in a cobwebby sheen of fiber.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” he said. “Not even to save my life.”

  Despite the growing symphony of the hounds’ cries and the ever-growing certainty that we might yet meet our death here, I smiled and held out a hand. He lurched up and clasped it, his fingers so warm compared with mine. Which meant his flames still burned deep inside him and of that, I was glad—if only because it suggested I’d put him back together right.