Лори Девоти - Unbound

Risk could do little more than mirror them, surprise holding him captive.

She laughed. “A hound owning other hounds. I don’t think it’s ever been done.”

A shuffling sounded from where Venge lay. He looked up, his gaze locked on Risk and his eyes glowing red. Sigurd stepped forward, his staff poised above Venge’s head.

“He’s coming around,” he stated.

Lusse tilted her head at Risk. “The cage?”

Risk gave her a short nod.

“To the cage,” she announced gaily, then with a laugh, she slipped her arm back through Risk’s. “Shall we ride?”

Risk followed her back through the kennel, ignoring the bellowing rage of his son behind him.

Why had she parked so far away the other night? The trip from the Guardian’s Keep to Kara’s car stretched out in front of her. Even in the bright daylight she was beginning to get that itchy feeling. As if someone was watching her, or sneaking up behind her.

She wouldn’t give in to the fear. She would just stop, stand solid and prove to herself nothing was behind her. Lowering her chin, she spun, her hands ready to shoot out whatever power she could muster.

Nothing but an empty parking lot covered in newly fallen snow greeted her.

See; nothing. She turned back toward the street.

The dull whoosh of feet brushing over damp pavement froze her in midstride. Almost immediately an arm smacked against her windpipe, momentarily cutting off her air, and something sharp pricked her neck.

“Don’t move, witch,” a gravely voice mumbled. “I got me a stunner.” Blue lightning flashed in the corner of Kara’s eye.

“I don’t want to use it, you understand. I hear tell it hurts right bad, worse than the knife.” He gouged her again. Kara pulled back, but her body was wedged against his. Her movement brought her face closer to his. The stench of stale beer, cigarettes and motor oil assaulted her. She twisted her head again, causing the knife to tear a thin trail across her skin. Her knees bent and her eyes flickered closed against the pain.

She was such a fool. Why had she thought she could handle this?

“Careful, bitch.” He chuckled. “I got that right this time. According to the Guardian you been bedding down with the dogs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you.” He laughed again, a high-pitched almost hysterical sound.

Dog, hounds. What was with this talk of her and a hound?

She angled her neck in an attempt to put space between her and the blade. “I think you have the wrong person. I don’t like dogs.”

“Don’t like dogs. Well, that makes two of us.” He pulled her backward, her heels making parallel trails through the snow.

What did he want? The knife. The bar. It was all too similar to the scene that had flitted through her head when she’d touched the witch in the morgue. Was this what had happened to Kelly?

He reached one of the cement barriers that marked the parking places, and stopped, apparently deciding his best route from here.

“We got about twenty feet between us and the Keep. You think you can be a good little witch and cooperate? ’Cause if not, I’m gonna have to…” Blue flame sizzled next to Kara’s face. “Hurts like the dickens, and it freezes all your powers. That’s the downside for me. Hard to get top dollar when you can’t perform.”

A snowflake drifted from the blue sky and landed on Kara’s nose. She loved snow — or used to. Now she wondered, would she hate it as much as she hated dogs?

“So, whatcha say? We got a deal? I get my fix and you get a pain-free trip through the portal.”

Another bigger flake plopped onto Kara’s eyelash, then fell, a tiny shock of water into her eye.

Funny. She wasn’t much in a deal-making mood. His arms held her around the biceps, but her hands were still free and with her elbows bent she should be able to use them to shoot whatever power she had over her shoulder and into his face.

She inhaled, thought of Risk, and prepared to fight. Her elbows bent almost of their own accord as energy thrummed into her.

“Aw, no. You oughtn’t to do that.” Blue flared again. Heat seared the side of her face, and the smell of her own hair singing burned her nose.

She wasn’t ready. She could feel it. She needed more time, just a second or two.

No time to think. Screwing her eyes tight against the threatening blue light, she willed all the energy she’d stored down through her arms and out her raised hands.

The man behind her yelped. Jumping sideways, he dragged the knife from her neck to her shoulder as he moved. The stunner snapped and burned a path through her hair. Then Kara was free.

But she couldn’t run. Couldn’t do anything except stand there panting as if she’d finished a marathon in record time. Her assailant crouched a few feet away, his knife clutched in his fist and his stunner on the ground by his feet.

With narrowed eyes, he picked up the weapon. “Can’t be easy. Can it? God forbid I made an easy score now and again.” He rolled a switch on the side of the thing and held it out toward her. “Now see this is going to hurt.” Shaking his head, he scrambled to his feet and limped toward her.

Kara stood there, her breathing slower, but her power drained. She didn’t know how she knew her resources were empty, but she did. She might as well be holding off a grizzly with an unloaded revolver.

Lusse tilted her face to the falling snow, the tiny flakes catching on her silver lashes, and tumbling onto her cheeks where they lay unmoved.

Risk fisted his hand around the bloody bandage. He didn’t have time to be playing games with Lusse. His son was safe for a while at least, but Kara was alone back in the human world where some thief was hunting witches. And he had new things to consider, like Lusse’s promise of a gift of the other hounds and her information on the garms.

“How many portals do you think there are?” he asked.

Blinking, she lowered her face to look at him. “How many? I don’t know. The gods and the garm are very hush-hush about all that.”

“So how does someone know to go to a portal in the first place?”

Air exploded from her mouth. “They just know.”

Her toe tapped against the path. “Perhaps it’s time for you to get back.”

Risk couldn’t agree more. With a nod, he took a small step backward and shimmered away.

Kara staggered backward, stumbling over a cement barrier and falling onto her butt. The man limped toward her, the blue flame of his stunner barely visible against the early afternoon sky.

She groped behind her, coming up with nothing more than a handful of snow. Desperate, she threw it at him. Hissing, it struck the flame and evaporated into steam.

“Now that’s not gonna help any.” He bent down, his knee pressed into her chest, one hand wrapped around her neck. “If you hold still, I’ll zap you in the arm. They say it don’t hurt as bad there.”

Kara flailed upward, her closed fist making contact with the side of his head.

“Shit. That hurt. I’m gonna have to quit being nice to you.” A wild glint in his eyes, he pulled back the hand holding the stunner.

The flame sped toward Kara’s face. She reached up her hand to block it. Her arm collided with his seconds before a loud roar shook the ground beneath them.

The man on top of her fell off, his eyes wide and his face slack. “I wasn’t hurting her. You tell him, witch. I wasn’t going to hurt you, was I?”

Rubbing her arm, Kara scooted her body back, away from her crazed attacker.

“I’m not looking for trouble. Just stopped by for a drink. That’s all,” the man blathered, his eyes fixed on someone or something to her side, out of her vision.

A growl rumbled toward her. The hairs on her arm shooting up at the sound.