Amanda Bonilla: Blood Before Sunrise

The faint thrumming of an urgent pulse piqued my curiosity. Levi headed toward our table, sweat glistening on his brow. He ushered our waitress quickly out of the way and bent his head between Tyler and me. “Outside. You have company, Darian, and he’s not the sort of patron we let in, if you get my drift.”

Sounded like trouble, and I needed something to take my frustration out on. “Where?”

Levi cast a nervous glance in Tyler’s direction. “In the back alley. Said he just wants to talk…but I’ve never known them to be peaceable.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, giving a playful smile. “I’ll go see what he wants.”

“ We’ll go see,” Tyler interjected.

Fine. “We’ll go see,” I said, standing.

“The back exit’s open,” Levi said. “No alarms. It’ll take you right out to the alley.”

Ty followed hot on my heels-literally. He bumped into me more than once. Had it been anyone else, I would have been tempted to give him an ungracious shove. What the hell did he think was going to happen anyway? No one had managed to kill me…yet. “This is exactly why you can’t continue ditching me, Darian. You need protection. You need me.”

“I can handle myself, Ty.” Had something happened during my transformation to make me suddenly too weak to take care of myself?

“That’s not the problem, Darian. I know you can handle yourself. But even you need backup every once in a while. That’s where I come in.”

I didn’t answer, not wanting to fight with my boyfriend in front of my “visitor.” As we walked out into the back alley, I heard the Lyhtan’s grating breath before I actually saw it. Him . That was what Levi had called him anyway. With their androgynous, insectlike bodies, I still don’t know how anyone could tell their gender. I approached cautiously. I’m not stupid. Regardless of having the upper hand, I didn’t feel like I did. Lyhtans are deadly. They fight amongst themselves as much as they harry their enemies. Violence is their cup of tea, and it doesn’t matter who serves it up.

When the Lyhtan laid eyes on Tyler, he took a defensive stance. Green-tinged drool leaked from his mouth, and he bared his teeth. A low hiss issued from between the sharp points. “I asked for the marked one. Not you, Jinn,” he said in his many voices, which melded into a single ominous chorus. “You have no business here.”

Marked one. Didn’t realize I had an actual title. “His business is my business. Don’t worry your pretty little head about Ty.” Pretty. Ha. “What’s your name, Lyhtan?” I had little hope he’d supply it. They rarely do. But then again, even sometimes I am surprised.

“I am called Chianshank.”

Sounded a lot like a sneeze the way he pronounced it. Chi-an with a quick shahnk. I wanted to follow up with a Bless you . No wonder they didn’t often supply their names. How in the hell was I going to remember that one?

“Well, Chian ,” I said, going for something a little less formal, “what do you want?”

“I bring a warning.” His breath came foul and loud, echoing in the alley. “And you’d best heed it.”

His voice, like so many tones layered together, reminded me of less than happy times. The threat of becoming a sacrifice choking every ounce of air from my lungs as I lay helpless on a slab of moss-covered stone, impending death on the wind. I thought of my soul, screaming for release from torturous love and betrayal. I envisioned blood-so much blood streaming from twin slashes on my wrists.

Thank whatever gods are out there, I’m no delicate flower. I pushed the unpleasant memories away and widened my stance, caressing the dagger hilt at my thigh. It wouldn’t kill the bastard, but it would wound him enough to get him out of my hair if his intentions were less than honorable. “Why warn me? The last time I met up with your kind, saving my skin was low on the Lyhtan to-do list.”

“Neither Shaede nor Lyhtan be,” he crooned. Sheets of gooseflesh rose over my skin. “You are Other. Dangerous to some, a savior to others. And I’ve been instructed to warn you.”

From around the corner, a door slammed. Chianshank flinched, crouching low. A warning grumble bubbled from his thin lips. His taloned fingers flexed, and he cast a furtive glance to either side. “Come close, creature. I will deliver my message to your ears alone.”

Creature, huh? If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black. “I’ll come a little closer on your word that you won’t attack.”

“On my word,” the Lyhtan seethed.

Tyler snorted in protest behind me, and I held up a hand to silence whatever argument was about to spill from his lips. Taking a step toward the Lyhtan messenger and then another, I wondered at my own state of mind. The smell of Lyhtan that I’d thought of as especially foul didn’t offend my nostrils the way it once had. To my new senses, the Lyhtan smelled of strong musk, pine, and wilting lavender. Heady, though not exactly pleasant.

As I moved within killing distance of the segmented body of my would-be enemy, he straightened from his battle stance just a little-enough to meet me eye to eye. I stared into the amber orbs, beady black pupils fixed on my face. Suppressing a shudder, I inclined my head toward the Lyhtan’s slobbering, sharp-toothed mouth. I sensed Tyler stiffen behind me, his anxiety pulsing in soft invisible waves at my back. “Speak your piece, Lyhtan,” I murmured. “And then get the hell out of my space.”

Chian’s face passed close to my cheek-so close I felt a whisper of slimy contact from his glistening mouth. He took a breath of me deep into his lungs before looking me in the eye, and his tongue flicked out, licking his lips as if in anticipation of a lover’s kiss. I held perfectly still and forbade my body to react. I forced my lungs to expand and contract at a normal rhythm. Tyler’s pulse quickened behind me, thrumming double time to the seconds that ticked in my soul.

I waited.

“You will be the instrument of destruction. Creature of nothing and everything-he is coming for you. You must seek out-”

A swooshing sound interrupted his ominous speech. The Lyhtan jerked, then stood erect. His amber eyes rolled back in his head, which lolled on his sharp, hunching shoulders. A shimmering wave, like sunlight on water, shivered across his skin. He jerked again, and turned to the side. The long shaft of an arrow poked out from the back of his head, which seemed to glow hot and somehow cold all at once.

I stumbled and fell back into Ty’s waiting arms, which pulled me farther away toward cover. Chianshank pitched forward, and the arrow’s shaft glowed blindingly bright, encompassing his body in a brilliant luster that forced me to avert my gaze. His long, lanky body crumpled to the pavement, sizzling and curling in on itself until there was nothing left but a greenish pool of steaming goo.

Before I could reach for my dagger, Tyler spun me around and slammed me against a brick wall. He pressed me hard against the unyielding surface, my face smashed against his chest. His arms spread wide as his palms pressed against the wall behind me. Another arrow cleaved the air, singing in the night, and stuck in the brick inches from my head. The tip burned crimson, eating away at the hard brick and turning it to sand. Its grip lost, the arrow dropped to the pavement with a hollow echo beside my boot and disintegrated into nothing but ash.

I did not have time for this shit.

I don’t know how he did it, but Tyler kept me pinned to that damned wall. The cool chill of his personal brand of magic snaked over my skin, holding me in a grip that refused to let me leave my corporeal form. “Ty, let me go!” My muffled command lost some of its impact in his shirt. “Goddamn it! Let. Me. Go!”