Shadow Games Page 4

  “I know, and I’m very deeply sorry,” He said planting little kisses along my face and jaw line. “I am. Honestly I’ve never felt so bad about something before in my entire life as I have when I made the decision to do that to you.”

  “You mean to kill me.”

  “Yes. It’s why I ended up here. I thought, that if there was any chance you’d be alive, you might come back here and I could explain and patch things up between us.”

  “Us? You make it sound like we were actually dating Tarin.” I stated at him and watched a muscle in his jaw twitch. “Not just pretend dating for the sake of the job. It was two nights, one day.” I found myself slightly unhappy at the thought. “You hired me for a job and we had a little sex on the side, it was great sex, but it was just sex. Nothing more.”

  His body tensed against me. “Nothing more.” He repeated at me. “You’re kidding yourself Katelyn. I tried that, didn’t work. There’s a connection between us and you know it and I know it.”

  “I don’t know it. I’m not sure I know anything, especially about you Tarin.”

  “Then why did you blind fold me to kiss me? Why not just leave Asha in charge of bitching at me. Why are you lying here in my arms?” He asked me without hesitation.

  I frowned back at him. “It’s my bed you’re crashing on. My place you broke into. My life, you tried to take.” I would’ve gone on and he would’ve argued with me further but we both froze when we heard the sound of metal moving. Out in the suburban landscape my warehouse was located in, this late at night, it was otherwise, surprisingly peaceful. So when noises were made, they were loud and obvious. I slipped out of his embrace and pushed off the bed, walking over to the window.

  “What is it?” he asked me from the bed.

  I looked out the back window scanning the night outside. Sure enough I spotted the car and felt rather than heard, Tarin walk up behind me. My pulse raced. He had to have taken the blindfold off and I part of me wanted to turn around and look upon him again. We both looked outside in silence before Tarin pulled back from me and I felt the lack of heat of his presence from my back. Part of me missed it already, which was stupid, I mentally told myself.

  “We gotta move.” He said already doing just that. He jogged past me heading for the staircase downstairs, giving me a great view of his magnificently naked backside. He paused just before the staircase “Now might be a time for Asha to take over.” He said with his back still turned to me.

  “Why?”

  “Because you and I, it’s going to have to take a backseat until we deal with what’s coming our way.” He disappeared down the staircase and I moved back into my bed area to locate my shoes wonder what the hell was coming our way. The thing with Asha was I didn’t like letting her out. Each time she came out, she grew a little stronger against me and became harder to contain. And I knew I had to be able to contain her, to control her. My instincts told me that.

  8

  By the time Tarin was back upstairs, dressed, I’d pulled on a hoodie and zipped it up pulled on some boots and laced them up, and looked back at him as Asha the one of us he didn’t like but most certainly needed. He glanced over and waved to follow him putting up a finger to his mouth to indicate she should do so in silence.

  I moved quickly and quietly along the top floor, following Tarin to the far corner of the upper level, he pointed up at the windows which were a good two meters from the ground level. One of them, was a push out window and was slightly, ever so slightly, ajar. This was how he’d gotten in, previously. The window had to be about sixty by sixty centimeters wide. He stood underneath it and laced his hands together. I thought he had to be kidding and indicated as much by tilting my head to the side and looking at him like he was crazy.

  “Why don’t we just sneak out which ever door they’re not coming through?” I whispered at him fiercely.

  “I thought you only had one door to this place.”

  “Two, genius. Try to pay attention next time.”

  “Okay, well,” We both froze and Tarin paused as we heard voices getting more prominent as they approached the warehouse. I looked back at the window, and leapt up, grabbing the edge of it with ease and lifted myself through it, till I was outside on the roof.

  I watched the window as Tarin’s hands appeared to grip it and then Tarin, grunting somewhat, struggled to pull himself up and through the opening. I guess he hadn’t planned on exiting the warehouse the same way he’d broken in. Too bad, it was his own doing and choosing. We sat side by side, squatting on the top of the roof, near the window. Tarin held a finger up to his mouth and he started to circle around the roof, following the directional sound of the outside visitors. One of them appeared to have what look like bolt cutters in his hands. Clearly they were set to breach the front entrance.

  We watched them from up high as they disappeared out of our view. They were talking and not being terribly quiet about it either. Clearly not too smart if they were trying for a sneak attack on me. Or maybe they just weren’t concerned because they actually thought I was dead. Which made me think, if they thought I was dead then what were they doing at my residence? Gold digging over the remains to pawn off for cash?

  “Dingo shifters.” Tarin said in a low voice to me as we watched them approach from our hidden spot. “I’ve dealt with them once before. Muscle for hire, they’re good at going through a place and tearing it to pieces.” He put up another finger to his lips and indicated we should move again.

  Keeping in a low squat stance, we moved single file across the roof top. Going back past the way we’d popped out onto the roof. Tarin kept moving, eventually standing upright and balancing along the arched rooftop until he got to the end of the building.

  He looked across at the building opposite mine. There was a small gap between the two. Maybe a meter, maybe less. He held his breathe and flung himself forward in a standing, stationery leap. He made the leap and I followed, making the jump, even easier than he had. The rooftop of the building was flat and had a few hiding spots on it due to the external structure of ventilation shafts. Tarin indicated we should hide behind one.

  “What are we doing?” I asked him completely annoyed that he seemed to think he was the boss of what we were doing.

  “I’m pretty sure we don’t want them to find us.”

  “Pretty sure? Why? Don’t they think I’m – Katelyn is dead and you’re probably considered on the run, right?” I whispered angrily back at him.

  “Probably. Maybe.” He said shaking his shoulders. “It’s more of an advantage to us if they don’t know we’re alive.”

  “How so?” Tarin looked at me then.

  “When someone is after you, everything that you control is an advantage. Not terribly smart for a demi-god are you?”

  I glared at him in the darkness. “You try sleeping for most of your life and waking up full of bright ideas in a world you’ve barely ever stepped foot in.” I muttered back at him. “If we stayed close we might be able to see what it is they’re after or listen to them further.” I replied back at him.

  “Or we could get busted and they could grab us.” Tarin shut me down with.

  “We don’t even know that they’re after us.”

  Tarin looked at me with surprise. “Then why are they breaking into your place?” I rolled my eyes at him and moved back around the ventilation shaft.

  “Asha!” He hissed at me. “What are you doing?”

  “You stay here, I’m going to find out why they’re breaking into Katelyn’s place.” I smirked at him running back around the rooftop and taking a flying leap at the rooftop of my warehouse and landing with the softness of a cat as I heard Tarin curse me from far behind me.

  9

  Prying the window we’d escaped out of back open was easy enough, and the voices of the males inside carried high and loud.

  “You sure she’s not dead?”

  “They said her name was Katelyn and she fits exactly with the description of the woman Ta
rin was seen with the other night.”

  “He fucked it up.” They weren’t visible from my vantage point, but they were loud enough. Clearly not concerned with being heard or busted. What were these two a part of that had them saying us.

  “Well she’s obviously not here, now what?” I rolled my eyes, this whole cloak and dagger thing was boring as hell. I sighed and opened the window and put two fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly.

  “Asha!” Tarin hissed loudly at me, seeing what I was doing. I grinned back at him.

  “Screw this.” I listened to the commotion of them talking and running as I slid back in through the window and onto the second level of the warehouse.

  “You guys must have your eyes closed or something. I’m right here.” The dingo shifters appeared and looked at me surprised me. They’re eyes were wide but focused on me, they couldn’t figure out where I’d come from. Maybe they thought I had invisible powers.

  “She’s just a girl.” The one on the right replied. Maybe I didn’t look as impressive or adult like in the street clothes I was in now. They clearly had a different opinion of what Katelyn was like. A saying filtered around my head from the Katelyn within. So I decided to try it out, not really understanding it.

  Of course, talking and taunting lead to fighting stances and suddenly I understood very well what Katelyn was pushing me, to do. Not that I was opposed to it. “So what’s the deal boys? Want to let me in on who wants me dead and why or does this have to get messy and be done the hard way?” The one on his left actually cracked his knuckles and growled at me. “The hard way then. Oh goody. Come at me bro.”

  An invitation wasn’t need to start fighting, because the result was inevitable. They had a job to grab me, I didn’t wish to be grabbed, killed or kidnapped. Hence, there was always going to be a fight. Dingo shifter number one lunged for me and reached out, grabbing his head in my hands automatically. The difference in touch between me and Katelyn was rather great.

  Katelyn could choose to switch off or ignore, or pursue or find the truth in people she touched. She’d figured out how to do that over the years. But as Asha, I had never had that luxury.

  I was born of power and it flowed through me and made everyone I touched, an open conduit to me. I had no say in what I got back from them, there was always a delivery. The only real difference was, if they were aware of it or not and knew how to shut down and lock me out from reading and rifling their mind and body for what I could get from them. Like what had happened at the dinner table with Tarin.

  The other difference between Katelyn’s ability of me and my being, was the way I read people, hurt. Hurt them a lot. Humans were fragile shells that were all too easy to break and leave a blubbering, screwed up mess of mind goo. I could screw up the circuitry in someone’s head, easily.

  Paranormal beings, fared slightly better, but not by much. It really depended on the type of their being, some were stronger, more powerful than others, some not so much. Shape shifters, like these dingos, were easy fodder to hurt like hell. The one who had come at me, had lunged as if going in for a mid waist tackle. Which meant, he’d leant his upper body forward and he hadn’t expected me to grab him by the head. He’d expected me to brace for the attack and then being “just a girl,” get knocked over. Where he, and his partner would then sit on top of me, tie me up. Mission to capture the fugitive, accomplished.

  I knew this, because between the screaming he was unleashing, I was stomping all through his brainwaves and slamming around that cortex of his, as he tried to fight me off, physically and mentally at the same time. His partner in crime was frozen on the spot, he bounced on his feet, unsure of whether to help or not. His eyes kept flickering to his mate in my headlock grip of hands. It might have looked ordinary, except for the fact that the dingo shifter’s face was getting redder and reader.

  “Dee!” the other one cried out.

  “You’re name’s D and you’re a dingo shifter?” I muttered back at him as he squirmed. “Original.”

  He was getting better at fighting me mentally, but I still read a lot of information from him. The story behind the baby kidnapping at Ayers Rock in the nineteen eighties was up there. He knew some of what had happened to her, and his information wasn’t through news or police reports. This dingo was a hands on kind of guy. He liked to get involved in things. Especially things that involved either fighting or blood. That came from his dingo shifter nature, it was a primal need that coursed through him, like power of truth coursed through me.

  “Fucking let him go!” The other shifter screamed at me, raising his arm as if to threaten to bash me with the bolt cutters he still held in his hands.

  My eyes shifted to him as my thoughts remained locked onto the dingo in my hands. The pain was bringing on his shape shift, and I felt rather than saw, his hands on my hands, change to padded paws with sharpened claws digging into the backs of my hands. The anxious dingo shifter flinched back when he saw my eyes and lowered the bolt cutter slightly.

  He wouldn’t hit me, he had to bring me back to his boss. I was valuable, that was why they were after me. I refocused back on the dingo in my hands, who’s whole body stance was weakening, he was almost kneeling before me, from trying to fight everything about what I was doing to him.

  The thing with fighting an internal, mental attack is it doesn’t follow a straight line and so it’s like bouncing from one wall of the brain to another, and then going and going and doing it again. A bit like a squash game, you read here, you read there, then you go somewhere else, and so it goes. Keeping up with that, is hard, especially if you don’t know how to, or where the attack is going to go next. Defense is like an afterthought that is too slow a reaction for what I do.

  I felt his claws prick into my skin and smelt the blood he drew. Blood from humans is just blood, it’s vital to their bodily functions but that’s about it. Paranormal blood, that’s a varied and wide open source for specializing in all kinds of weird shit. Truth Sayer blood, to the uninitiated, well, it’s powerful. Even just inhaling the scent of it, is powerful. There were streams of blood running down my hand as the dingo continued to dig into me, with all his might.

  His partner again raised his impromptu weapon of choice, the bolt cutters and started to swing. A thud behind me and a blur of motion from my perhipal vision saw the armed dingo fly backwards, with Tarin smacking into the top of him. The dingo in my grasp, who was fighting now just to breathe through pain, weakened his grip, mentally and physically.

  There was a very big reason that I had been targeted. But he did not know what it was. I felt him open himself up to me and realized, he must’ve smelt my blood that he cut open. He was susceptible to me, like someone under the influence of a truth serum.

  “Who sent you after me?”

  “There was a call put out for bounty hunters to collect you. We got an anonymous tip off that you were alive.” His voice was soft and made the dingo sound like he was in a far-away stupor. Which meant he was completely under my control, now. “So I said we’d do the job.”

  “And what were you supposed to do with me?” I could hear Tarin beating the living daylights out of the other dingo but remained focused on the one still in my hands, who was bending like a wilted flower or former human being before me. Which was of course, the way I liked these things to go. He had no idea what was going on, outside of my voice and my presence.

  “Supposed to take you to the old mental asylum for collection and payment.” He dropping one shifted dingo paw off my hand, and scratching me in the process. The word Laurundel flared up in him.

  “Laurundel?”

  “Yes, take you to Laurundel and wait for you to be taken off our hands.”

  “Who were you supposed to hand me over to?” I could no longer hear the sounds of Tarin hitting the crap out of the other dingo and my eyes glanced up and over towards his direction. All was fairly quiet as Tarin slowly stood up from sitting onto of the other male and walked back over in our direction. />
  “Arlow.”

  I looked back at the dingo shifter in my hands, drool was starting to form from his mouth, which probably meant I was doing some sort of considerable damage to him. Holding him in this kind of cohesive, forced, state of being.

  “Who and what is Arlow?” The line of drool started to run, down the dingos furrying face. His shape shift was still happening but at a fairly slow rate of change. Either because of what I was doing to him or because the dingo could no longer remember how to shape shift or in all likelihood because I was killing him and the human side of him was reverting to the baser side of him, the animal shifter side for a weak attempt at survival.

  “Merc.”

  It was all I got out of him before his eyes fluttered wildly and rolled backwards into his head. I dropped my hands off the dingo and watched him slump heavily to the ground. I didn’t know if I’d killed him or not, and I didn’t really care as Tarin stepped over him and straight at me.

  “Next time, a heads up would be nice. Partner.” He said panting heavily and putting his hands on his hips. I ignored his discourse.

  “Now what do you think he was going to say? What kind of paranormal starts with merc? I don’t believe I’ve heard of one before.”

  “He probably just croaked at the end, giving you were killing him by reading him. I should know you don’t have the softest of touches.” I locked eyes with Tarin. Petty, petty. “He was probably going to say Merrow or Murchata before you killed him completely.”

  “Seriously Tarin, that’s the best you can come up with? A mermaid or a giant cat beast wants to grab me, for what purpose? Please lets try using some logic here in solving the problem of who’s after me.”